ED attaches Rs 10 cr worth of assets of Tamil director in Rajinikanth-starrer Robot plagiarism case

The ED case stems from a 2011 complaint by writer Aarur Tamilnadan, who accused director Shankar in a Chennai court of copying the plot of the 2010 film Robot from his story.

A poster of the film Enthiran

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has provisionally attached three immovable properties worth over Rs 10 crore of Tamil director S. Shankar in a case of alleged plagiarism related to his blockbuster film Enthiran, starring Rajnikanth and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan.

The ED had opened an ECIR in April 2021 based on a criminal complaint filed by writer Aarur Tamilnadan against Shankar before a Chennai court in 2011, alleging that the storyline of Enthiran (Robot) was copied from his story titled Jiguba.

Tamilnadan had sought action against Shankar under relevant provisions of the Copyright Act, 1957, and the Indian Penal Code, stating that Jugiba was published in Tamil monthly magazine Iniya Udhayam in April 1996, and republished in another book titled Thik Thik Deepika in 2007.

The ED said in a statement Thursday that its investigation so far has revealed that Shankar earned Rs 11.5 crore for his contributions such as story development, screenplay, dialogues and direction of Enthiran. The properties attached include one flat and two parcels of land in Chennai.

Produced by Sun Pictures at a cost of more than Rs 100 crore, the movie was dubbed and released in several languages under different names, such as Robot in Hindi, Robo in Telugu and Bombat Robo in Kannada, in October 2010.

The ED said Thursday the movie made a worldwide collection of Rs 290 crore, making it an all-time blockbuster. It also said that the Film and Television Institute of India was approached for a report on the writer’s allegations, and an independent report of March 2022 had flagged “striking similarities” between the story Jiguba and the movie Enthiran.

“This report, which examined narrative structure, character development, and thematic elements, lends significant support to the plagiarism charges,” an ED spokesman said Thursday.

Tamilnadan had sought Rs 1 crore in damages caused by the alleged copy of his work. However, the Madras High Court in June 2023 quashed the civil suit seeking action against Shankar and the demand of damages by Tamilnadan.

(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)