Kerala High Court Refuses To Stay Release Of Mohanlal-Starrer 'Neru' On Plea Alleging Script Plagiarism

The Kerala High Court on Wednesday refused to stay the release of the film 'Neru', starring Mohanlal and directed by Jeethu Joseph. 

The Single Judge Bench of Justice Devan Ramachandran today issued notice on a writ petition filed by a person alleging that the script of the movie has been plagiarised. The bench issued notice by special messenger to the respondents. The Court however refused to stay the release of the movie tomorrow.

The petitioner, Deepu K. Unni, who is a Story and and Screen Play Writer for films, alleges that it was his script that had been stolen by the makers and set to be released as 'Neru'. The petitioner sought directions to the Union Government, the State Government, CBFC and the State Police to stop the releae of the film.

 The petitioner avers in his plea that he had approached popular director Jeethu Joseph and actor Adv. Santhi Priya, who are both co-writers of the film, and discussed his script with them in the year 2021. He claims that Joseph and Priya compelled the petitioner to handover copies of his script to them stating that they need expert lawyers to help "understand the Emotional Court Drama Sequence" of his script. 

The petitioner claims that the aforementioned respondents had taken the copies of his script on assuring the former that they would revert back to him once they fixed the dates with popular Malayalam cine actor Mohanlal. 

Unni however alleges that Joseph and Priya, at the instance of the Executive Producer of 'Neru' Antony Perumbavoor and Producer and Actor Mohanlal released the trailer of the movie 'Neru', with sequences that were exact replicas of his script, without informing him about the same or involving him in the making of the movie.  

The matter has been posted for further consideration tomorrow. 

The plea has been moved through Advocates B.A. Aloor, Rebin Vincent Gralan, Haseeb Hassan M., Suchithra P.S., Krishnasankar D., and Ailin Elezabath Mathew.

Case Title: Deepu K. Unni v. Union of India & Ors. 

Case Number: W.P. (C) No. 41359 of 2023