Madras High Court orders notice to Atlee, AGS Entertainment in case involving Vijay-starrer ‘Bigil’
A poster of the movie Bigil
The Madras High Court on Tuesday (September 3, 2024) issued a notice to popular film director Atlee, production company AGS Entertainment Pvt Ltd and its executive director Archana Kalpathi in a case of plagiarism of the script of actor Vijay-starrer ‘Bigil’. .’
Justice M. Beautiful and more. A division bench in Shaktivel ordered the issuance of notice on a petition filed by screenwriter Amjath Meeran to condone the 73-day delay in preferring three appeals against the dismissal of his three petitions by a single judge.
The petitioner told the bench that he had filed a civil suit before the High Court in 2019 – when the Tamil movie was released – seeking a declaration that the script of ‘Bigil’ was his. He wanted to appoint an advocate commissioner to ascertain the amount of “copying/plagiarism” committed by the defendants.
Claiming that a script written by him titled ‘Brasil’ was plagiarized to make ‘Bigil’, the petitioner sought a direction to the defendants to pay him an initial compensation of ₹10 lakh, in addition to further damages as determined by the court.
In 2023, the petitioner filed three petitions requesting the court to accept additional documents submitted as evidence in his case and to file the 2015 certificate issued by the Writers Guild of America (West) for his script.
The applicant sought permission to adduce further oral evidence in support of his case. He told the court that the 2015 certificate was very necessary to prove his case, but he could not produce it in 2019 as it was not with him then.
Counter affidavit
Mr. Attlee, meanwhile, filed a general counter-affidavit to all three applications, accusing the plaintiff of filing the suit with false, self-serving and fabricated statements. He alleged that the case was filed to collect money from him.
The director said the three pleas cannot be allowed after the trial is over and the case is ready for final arguments. He said that the application was made only to fill in the deficiency of evidence.
Mr. Atlee also said that he registered a 65-page script of ‘Bigil’ with the South Indian Film Writers’ Association on July 4, 2018 and then a 242-page detailed script with screenplay and dialogues on October 4, 2018. , before starting shooting.
He said the movie he wrote and directed was tentatively titled ‘Wathier’ and then ‘Thalapathy 63’ before finally releasing as ‘Bigil’ on October 26, 2019. The director said that the plaintiff rushed to the court immediately after release. Trailer
Wondering why the 2015 certificate was not produced when the suit was filed in 2019, Mr. Atlee said the plaintiff’s name did not appear on the website of the Writers Guild of America (West) and therefore, the authenticity of the certificate itself was questionable.
In their joint counter affidavit, AGS Entertainment and Ms. Kalpathi told the court that allowing the plaintiff to adduce additional evidence would delay the disposal of the case and that he should not be allowed to abuse the court’s process.
After hearing them all, Justice P. Velmurugan allowed the three applications on April 8, 2024, with the condition that the plaintiffs pay ₹1 lakh each to Mr Atlee, AGS Entertainment and Ms Kalpathi on or before April. Report compliance on 25th and 26th April.
However, on April 26, when it was brought to his notice that the costs had not been paid, the judge dismissed all three applications, leading to the filing of the present appeal, along with an application to condone the 73-day delay in filing the applications. .
