Earlier this morning (April 15), producer Aascar V Ravichandran issued a statement against filmmaker Shankar, asking him to stop the works of his next directorial venture with Ranveer Singh. On April 14, director Shankar made a big announcement reveealing that he will be remaking his blockbuster hit film, Anniyan, in Hindi with Ranveer Singh and the announcement created a huge buzz on social media. However, the film's producer Ravichandran issued a statement claiming that he is the sole owner of the movie, adding that he owns the rights for the film. He mentioned in his statement that the Hindi remake of Anniyan will stand illegal if Shankar proceeds with it.

Having said that, director Shankar has now responded to producer Ravichandran's statement and has denied the allegations placed against him. Director Shankar, who expressed his shock over Ravichandran's statement, said that he owns the story of Anniyan and is entitled to do anything with it. He also added that veteran writer Sujatha is only the dialogue writer of the film and does not own any rights to the story.

Shankar's official statement read, "To, Mr V Ravichandran Aascar film P ltd Chennai Dear sir, Greetings for the day, I am shocked to receive your mail dated 14.04.2021 stating that you own the storyline of the movie Anniyan. In this context, I submit that the movie was released in the year 2005 and everyone associated with the movie were aware that the script and storyline belongs exclusively to me and in fact the movie was released with the tag: Story, Screenplay and Direction by Shankar. I have not assigned in writing any script or screenplay to any person, and continue to retain the right to exploit the script in any manner I deem fit.

As the admitted author of the literary work, my rights cannot be interfered with under any circumstances. I am rather surprised to see the reference to late Sri Sujatha, as he was engaged by me only to write dialogues for the film and was accordingly credited. He was not involved in the script, screenplay or characterization in any manner, and there is no scope beyond his engagement as a dialogue writer. Given that the script vests with me, I am absolutely entitled to exploit the same in any manner I deem fit. Infact, you/your entity does not have the right to remake or make any derivative rights for “Anniyan”, as the said rights have not been granted to you in writing. In the absence of any assignment in writing from me, there can be no basis whatsoever to even assert that the “storyline” vests with you.

You as the producer have gained substantially from the success of the film “Anniyan”, and are needlessly trying to unjustly enrich yourself even in my future endeavours which have no correlation to you. Needless to state, I can only hope good sense will prevail upon you after this clarification and you will stop agitating such baseless claims. This reply is issued without prejudice, and to clarify the actual situation of me as a director and writer being subject to such avaricious and illegal claims to needlessly attempt to jeopardise my future projects.".

This issue has been garnering attention in Kollywood circles and has shocked a lot of people. Let us hope that the issue gets resolved very soon.