ED attaches director Shankar’s properties worth Rs 10.11 cr under PMLA

The Directorate of Enforcement ED Chennai Zonal Office has provisionally attached three immovable properties registered in the name of renowned Tamil film director S ShankarThe properties valued at approximately Rs 1011 crore have been seized under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act PMLA 2002The investigation stems from a complaint filed by Tamil writer Aarur Tamilnadan against S Shankar in the 13th Metropolitan Magistrate Court Egmore Chennai on May 19 2011 Case No 20672011Tamilnadan alleged that the storyline of Enthiran Robot a blockbuster film directed by Shankar was plagiarised from his short story Jiguba This he claimed constituted a violation of the Copyright Act 1957 and the Indian Penal Code IPC of 1860Following the complaint the Enforcement Directorate ED launched an investigation which revealed that Shankar had received a substantial remuneration of Rs 115 crore for his work on Enthiran including story development screenplay dialogues and directionAs part of the inquiry an independent report by the Film and Television Institute of India FTII was commissioned The analysis found striking similarities between Tamilnadanrsquos story Jiguba and the narrative of EnthiranThe report examined key aspects such as narrative structure character development and thematic elements The findings supported Tamilnadanrsquos plagiarism claimsThe 2010 film Enthiran starring Rajinikanth and Aishwarya Rai was a massive commercial success grossing Rs 290 crore worldwide However based on the evidence collected authorities concluded that S Shankar had violated Section 63 of the Copyright Act 1957mdasha crime that is now classified as a scheduled offence under the PMLA 2002Subsequently the Metropolitan Magistrate CourtII Egmore issued a nonbailable warrant NBW against S Shankar for repeatedly failing to appear in court regarding the caseWriter Aarur Tamilnadan originally published his short story Jiguba in the Tamil magazine Iniya Udhayam in 1996 It was later republished as a novel titled Dhik Dhik Dheepika in 2007Tamilnadan alleged that after Enthiran was released in 2010 it became evident that the moviersquos storyline had been lifted from Jiguba He accused Shankar and the filmrsquos production team of unauthorised reproduction which led to significant financial gains at the expense of his intellectual propertyThe Supreme Court dismissed his petition last year in which he challenged an order by the Madras High Court related to the copyright violation case Meanwhile the ED has confirmed that further investigations are ongoing