Writers’ Union resolves Comali plagiarism issue

Jayam Ravi’s upcoming film Comali has been embroiled in various controversies, and the latest is the plagiarism issue. Last week, Krishnamoorthy, an assistant to National award-winning director R Parthiban sought the help of  the Writers’ Union after he was told by his friends that the storyline of Pradeep Ranganathan’s directorial is similar to a script that he had written. “I was busy with the shoot of Oththa Seruppu. When I returned to Chennai, a few of my friends told me that Comali was similar to my script. Later, I took my script to Writers’ Union and Pradeep was asked to submit the script of Comali. Bharathiraja sir gave both the scripts a reading and agreed that they were the same,” Krishnamoorthy told DTNext. 

When we contacted Pradeep Ranganathan, he said that he had no connection with Krishnamoorthy or his script. “We both could have come up with the same idea. The script of Comali is something I had conceptualised even during my short film days. However, I am ready to abide by what Writers’ Union decides.” From our sources we hear that Parthiban came in defence of his assistant and negotiated with the Writer’s Union. “I had registered my script in 2014 and narrated the story to several producers. I also sent my script across to script agents in K’town. One of them may have leaked the script. However, the makers of Comali have agreed to give me due credit in the film. I will in other ways try and put an end to such issues as no assistant director in future should go through this struggle,” Krishamoorthy concluded.