| |||
Tuesday, 23rd Sept 2014 4:23 PM IST Around a year ago, Ekta Kapoor, the owner of Balaji MotionPictures, had bought the rights to make a movie on the Japanese novel, ‘The Devotion Of Suspect X’. She had signed Sujoy Ghosh to direct the film. However,in December 2013, Mohanlal starrer Malayalam film ‘Drishyam’ released, which was quite similar to the novel. But, the makers of the film claimed that there is no connection between the book and the film. After the success of ‘Drishyam’, Kamal Haasan is making a Tamil remake of the film. And then there were reports that even a Bollywood movie production house is planning to make a remake of the film. So, Balaji’s team sent out a notice which stated that if any other production house is planning to make a movie with a storyline similar to that of ‘The Devotion of Suspect X’then they will be inviting a case of alleged copyright infringement. However, now it is learnt that Viacom 18 Motion Pictures has bought the rights of ‘Drishyam’ to make the Hindi remake of it and actors like Ajay Devgn and Akshay Kumar are showing keen interest in being a part of the film. An insider of Viacom 18 said, "Akshay Kumar and AjayDevgn have already expressed interest and the studio is currently negotiating remuneration and dates with both. In a month's time, one of them will be finalised." Ajit Andhare, COO of Viacom 18, confirmed the news and said,"‘Drishyam’ is a very exciting film with an exhilarating subject. It's the kind of cinema we want to back as it stands on a solid script. We are happy that the film - whose rights were much sought after - has finally been closed and we have secured the rights from the film's South producers." On the statement of Ajit, Tanuj Garg, CEO of Balaji Motion Pictures said, "As the remake rights of the book ‘The Devotion of Suspect X’ have been officially licensed by us, we are already evaluating legal options. There are numerous reports pointing to similarities between the novel and the Malayalam film. We have also issued a caution notice to this effect to sound off the industry." |