Over the last week, French filmmaker Jérôme Salle’s tweets about the plagiarism of his film Largo Winch by the team of Agnyaathavaasi have garnered a great deal of attention. But despite the hullabaloo surrounding the copyright violation, the team of the Pawan Kalyan-starrer seems unfazed.
“Indian cinema has all the necessary talent and creativity for not having to plagiarise. And the silence from #Agnyaathavaasi team since one week is deafening. So let’s take action now. #LegalNotice (sic),” posted Jérôme on Thursday, making it clear that he’d be taking a legal course of action.
Meanwhile, several discussions are taking place online about how a settlement with T-series, who holds the remake rights for the film in all the Indian languages, has been made and that it is not possible for the French filmmaker to touch the Telugu film’s team. But it seems otherwise.
Elaborating on the same, and citing a recent example, a knowledgeable film personality shares, “Director Vamshi Paidipally’s Oopiri was also a remake of the French film The Intouchables and every permission was in place even before the film’s shoot began. More importantly, they ensured they stuck to all the clauses, the most basic of which is crediting the original creators of the film.”
While the team of Agnyaathavaasi did settle with T-series eventually, the fact remains that all this was done only after the film’s release and the brouhaha over the infringement became widely discussed. The film personality adds, “It all boils down to what the agreement states regarding the conditions for remake. The fact that they haven’t even reached out to the makers yet shows neglect too. To have ripped off a film so unabashedly, without even crediting the creators, will obviously ruffle a lot of feathers.”
