Court dismisses Dasavatharam case

By: Settu Shankar
Thursday, August 23, 2007

The Chennai High Court dismissed the writ petition filed by Assistant Director Senthil Kumar Yesterday, seeking a temporary ban on Kamal's Dasavatharam, claiming that the story of the movie is similar to that of his.

A few few months back, a case filed by Senthil Kumar in this regard was turned down by the same court due to lack of proper evidence. But the aggrieved Senthil Kumar filed a review petition again in the court and seeking a compensation and copy right to the story of Dasavatharam.

The petition came up for hearing before the High Court Division Bench comprising Chief Justice A.B. Shah and Justice Jyothimani. The CJ has already ordered both the parties to submit their version of the stories to substantiate their stand after which they were summoned by the judges for enquiries. An in-camera enquiry was also conducted for Kamal Hassan when he attended the court last week.

After the investigations, the judges came to the conclusion that the stories of Senthil Kumar and Kamal had no similarities. In the final verdict, the judges said that though both the stories contained 10 roles of the same characters, there were no visible similarities between the stories. Further they said, "The appellant has failed to make out any prima facie case for the grant of temporary injunction. The concept of hero playing multiple roles is not new and is being done in several films in Hindi and Tamil. Apart from that the balance of convenience in this case is clearly on the side of the respondents. The movie is almost completed. According to them, they have invested Rs.60 crores on this project and if any injunction is granted at this stage they will have to wait till the determination of the suit which could cause them financial ruin. The petitioner has a right to claim damages if he succeeds in the suit."

Now the petitioner is waiting eagerly for the outcome of the civil case sued by him in which he is seeking a compensation from the Dasavatharam producer in the same court.

Sources say that after hearing the verdict, Kamal appeared to be very relieved, and attended the shooting of the film with a new enthusiasm. The actor is expected to give a press briefing soon to explain the entire episode.