Personality rights issue mars Prithvi, Vineeth films?

When speech and hearing impaired Saji Thomas from Idukki shot to fame by building an ultra-light aircraft all by himself, filmmakers queued up to make a movie on his life. Shortly, two directors came forward with projects on similar lines. While director Pradeep M Nair announced his project

Vimanam

with Prithviraj, filmmaker Srikant Murali roped in Vineeth Sreenivasan to play the lead in his project. Now, Pradeep, who claims that he has secured the copyright for a film based on Saji's life, tells us that he will be filing a case against Srikant's team for 'violating personality rights.'

Pradeep says, 'We have known Saji for years and our technical advisor was the one who supported him to make the aircraft. When Saji's news came in the media, Srikant and team announced their project. As far as I know, they had approached Saji for copy rights and their movie is also about him.'

On Vimanam, Pradeep says that his movie is based on Saji's life and has inspiration as its theme. 'My film is about a physically challenged man who sets to make an aircraft. We plan to shoot the film in August at Mangalore,' he says.

When we contacted Srikant, he says that his team had initially planned to do a movie based on the inspiring story of a differently-abled boy. He says, 'Our movie has no similarity with Saji's life. While penning the script for my movie, scriptwriter Santhosh Echikkanam happened to read an article on Saji and we decided to visit him. We were excited to meet him and his wife Mariyam, but that doesn't mean we are making a movie on him.'

Srikant explains that his movie will be a motivation for youngsters. 'My movie is about a brilliant boy who dreams to make his own aircraft. When I read the life story of Wright brothers I felt that their story will encourage youngsters make their dreams a reality,' he says, adding that the central theme of the yet-to-be-titled movie is 'aspiration'.

However, Pradeep is not convinced. 'If Srikant is making a film on such lines, it will be a violation of copyright law. Hence, I am moving the court over personality rights,' he says, explaining that even if the team claims that the movie is not about a speech and hearing impaired man but on a brilliant boy, it can come under personality rights violation.

Citing the example of superstar Rajinikanth filing a case at Madras High Court to stay the release of the Hindi film Main Hoon Rajinikanth, Pradeep says that he has valid reasons to file a case. 'Saji is now an internationally known person. On several occasions, celebrities have invoked personality rights and protection against infringement. This case is a similar one.'