Telugu Film director Narasimha Rao, who has worked as an Associate Director with Tamil Director Shankar of ‘Robot’ fame, swears that his story was plagiarised and sought the help of the United Forum of Telugu Film Directors that has former Union Minister Dasari Narayana Rao as Chairman.
His has been through a struggle that is not so rare and one that is repeated at regular intervals the highly-competitive film industry. And because he allegedly found 80 per cent of his original story lifted by director A.R. Murugadoss for ‘Kathi’, a Tamil hit movie starring Vijay, he has been running from pillar to post without much of success.
The Forum has written to the Andhra Pradesh Film Chamber of Commerce that has producer D. Suresh Babu as its President, seeking its help to almost ‘ostracise’ Mr. Murugadoss in any venture that he could be associated in the Telugu industry.
Industry sources say that a while ago, when Mr. Narasimha Rao was working with Mr. Murugadoss, he had narrated and gone ahead with a project that was shelved half-way through.
Later, it is learnt that Mr. Murugadoss made ‘Kathi’ with Mr. Vijay in the lead. When he heard that the movie was making waves, Mr. Rao saw it on screen, only to be shocked out of his wits and moved forces in his quest for justice.
Interestingly, l’affaire ‘Kathi’ has found repercussions in the megastar-turned Rajya Sabha member K. Chiranjeevi's proposed movie. It may be recalled that his star-son Ramcharan Tej had announced that he would produce his father’s 150th film and even named directed V.V. Vinayak to wield the megaphone, with Paruchuri Brothers penning the dialogues.
On Wednesday a report in a Telugu television channel and mention of ‘Kathi’ in the social media too, went viral. While the development cannot exactly be called a spanner in the works of Mr. Chiranjeevi’s much-awaited 150th film, it has certainly led to tongues wagging, considering that he has not been on the best of terms with Mr. Dasari Narayana Rao.
