The ED has seized assets worth Rs 10.11 crore of the film director and producer S Shankar. The ED has frozen director Shankar’s assets in connection with the movie ‘Enthiran’. The total value of the seized assets is Rs 10.11 crore.
The ED’s move stems from a complaint filed against Shankar in a court in Egmore, Chennai, on May 19, 2011, by Aroor Tamil Nadu, the author of the Jiguba story. A case has been registered against Shankar on the grounds that the storyline of Shankar’s Tamil film Enthiran was copied from Jiguba, thereby violating the Copyright Act, 1957 and relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
Enthiran, starring Rajinikanth and Aishwarya Rai in the lead roles, was released in 2010. The film grossed Rs 290 crore worldwide. The Federal Investigation Agency had found during its investigation that Shankar had earned a substantial amount of Rs 11.5 crore from the film. Also, a report by the Film and Television Institute of India had pointed out similarities between the story Jiguba and the film Enthiran. Based on the evidence, it was found that S Shankar had violated Section 63 of the Copyright Act, 1957, which is now an offence under the PMLA, the ED said.
