Filmmaker files plaint over release of flick on OTT

Filmmaker A M R Ramesh said that his movie 'Veerappan Attahasa' was uploaded on the OTT platform without his knowledge

A Sandalwood filmmaker has approached the police against an OTT platform, a Kannada TV channel and a middleman for allegedly releasing a movie produced by him on the OTT platform without his knowledge.

Filmmaker A M R Ramesh, in his complaint to the police, said that his movie 'Veerappan Attahasa' (known as Attahasa) was uploaded on the OTT platform a few months ago, but he recently learnt about it when people who watched the movie on OTT started calling him to appreciate the flick.

Ramesh said he had given the satellite rights to a regional entertainment TV channel through a middleman. The channel executive and the middleman met him in Kathriguppe and signed an agreement in 2012.

The movie was released in 2013 and it received a good response. After six months, the movie was telecast on the channel.

In 2018, the middleman approached Ramesh and told him that they will make one more agreement to release the movie on OTT platform, for which he was offered Rs 50 lakh. However, the agreement did not happen, Ramesh said.

The filmmaker had an original copy of the movie with English subtitles on his hard disk and the same was given to the middleman.

Ramesh said that till recently, he was following up about the agreement for the movie's release on OTT and the middleman had told him that it is still in process.

But in January this year, Ramesh learnt that the movie was uploaded on the OTT platform. Ramesh got to know that it was the same copy with English subtitles, which he had given to the middleman.

Ramesh told DH that the middleman told him that the channel had given the copy of the film to the OTT platform. As he didn't get proper response from both the middleman and the channel, he approached the police.

The film maker said they told him that there is mention of rights of uploading the movie on the internet in the agreement, so they had given it to the OTT platform.

The C K Acchukattu police said they had taken up a case of cheating, breach of trust and are investigating.