SC refuses to stall release of Rajinikanth movie 'Kaala'

The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed a plea seeking a stay on the release of superstar Rajinikanth-starrer film Kaala, scheduled to release on Thursday.

A vacation bench of Justices Adarsh Kumar Goel and Ashok Bhushan rejected a claim by K Rajashekaran alias K S Nagaraj, a film producer, who claimed that the story of the film, songs, dialogue and scenes of the movie were lifted from his work.

The release of the movie 'Kaala', produced by Rajinikanth's son-in-law actor Dhanush under the banner of Wonderbar Films Pvt Ltd and directed by Pa Ranjith, was postponed earlier but it is set to hit the screens on Thursday.

Rajashekaran's counsel Akash Kakade contended that the petitioner has copyright of the movie and producers of the movie have not taken prior permission before making the film.

"You want an injunction against the release of the movie. Everybody is waiting for the film to be released," the bench told the counsel.

The lawyer cited the May 16 order of the Madras High Court which has posted his plea against the release of the movie for hearing on June 16.

“Let it (movie) be released. How can we stop the release,” the bench said.

In his petition before the apex court, the petitioner has alleged that he had duly applied for registration of copyright over the story of the movie Karikalan way back in 1992 and script of the film was read out to people during a function and also to Rajinikanth's brother.

He claimed that he always wanted to portray Rajinikanth as the lead character in the movie and he got registered the title Karikalan, who was a Chola king, in 1994.