SC paves way for release of Rajinikanth-starrer 'Kaala' tomorrow

Rajinikanth-starrer 'Kaala' would hit the screens tomorrow as the Supreme Court today refused to entertain a plea seeking to restrain its screening.

A vacation bench of Justices Adarsh Kumar Goel and Ashok Bhushan refused to entertain a plea by K S Rajashekaran, a film producer, who has claimed that the story of the film and songs and scenes of the movie were his work.

The release of the movie 'Kaala', produced by Rajinikanth's son-in-law actor Dhanush under the banner of Wonderbar Films Pvt Ltd and directed by Pa Ranjith, was postponed earlier and the flick is now scheduled to hit screens tomorrow.

During the brief hearing, Rajashekaran's counsel alleged before the bench that the petitioner had the copyright of the movie and producers of the movie have not taken prior permission before making the film.

"You want an injunction against the release of the movie. Everybody is waiting for the film to be released," the bench told the counsel, who claimed that release of the film was postponed twice earlier.

The lawyer then referred to the May 16 order of the Madras High Court which has posted his plea against the release of the movie for hearing on June 16.

"Let it (movie) be released. How can we stop the release," the bench said while refusing to entertain the plea.

In his petition before the apex court, the petitioner has alleged that he had duly applied for registration of copyright over the story of movie 'Karikalan' way back in 1992 and script of the film was read out to people during a function and also to Rajinikanth's brother.

He claimed that he always wanted to portray Rajinikanth as the lead character in the movie and he got registered the title 'Karikalan', who was a Chola king, in 1994.

The petitioner has claimed that his copyright-protected work related to story, scenes and songs were used by the producer and director of 'Kaala' without prior permission.