The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has provisionally attached three pieces of property belonging to filmmaker S Shankar, valued at around 10 crore. The action, taken on Monday under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, stems from a long-standing copyright infringement accusation related to the Shankar directorial Enthiran. The Rajinikanth-Aishwarya Rai starrer, one of the highest-grossing Indian films for its time, is at the heart of this legal battle.
The ED's investigation originated from a 2011 complaint filed by Aarur Tamilnadan in the 13th Metropolitan Magistrate Court, Egmore, Chennai. The complainant alleged that Enthiran's storyline was plagiarised from his story Jiguba. The complaint cited a breach of the Copyright Act, 1957, and the then-applicable Indian Penal Code.
According to the ED, their investigation revealed that Shankar received ₹11.5 crore for his work on Enthiran, encompassing story development, dialogues, script, and direction. A report from the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) corroborated Tamilnadan's claims, highlighting significant similarities between Jiguba and Enthiran.
The ED, in a statement, asserted that Shankar violated Section 63 of the Copyright Act, 1957, an offense now classified as a scheduled offense under the PMLA. The ED is looking further into the matter.