Ahead Of Release, Mohanlal's Barroz Faces Copyright Issue

As actor Mohanlal’s directorial debut Barroz going to hit screens this year’s Onam on September, a new crisis seems to halt its progress. Alleging copyright infringement, a Germany-based Malayali author has sent a legal notice to makers of Barroz , The News Minute reports.

According to complainant, George Thundiparambil’s statement, there is “uncanny similarity” between renowned filmmaker Jijo Punnoose’s novel – on which Barroz is supposedly based, and his own novel Maya (2008).

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The screenplay of the Barroz is currently handled by director TK Rajeev Kumar, after Jijo Punnoose said he was no longer part of it. Though the movie was scheduled to release on September 12, George’s legal notice posed the team to refrain from releasing the film until the copyright issues have been cleared.

George’s book Maya centered around a popular myth in Fort Kochi about a demigod called Kappiri Muthappan. The complainant agrees that myth of Kappiri Muthappan is not copyrighted but incorporation of this mythical idea into a storyline through the eyes of the eighteen-year-old girl named Maya is his sole creation and therefore is copyright-protected. Since the theme of Barroz announced years after his novel was published, it reflects similarity to his novel, George alleges.

As Barroz is based on a novel by Jijo Punnoose, a few chapters of it made available online on the website of his production group Navodaya. He could not locate such a novel anywhere on the market, complainant states. Besides, while reading the published chapters George has come across points similar in his book Maya, including the presence of a girl character who could see the ghost.

In the notice, author adds that a friend of him had taken a copy of Maya to Rajeev Kumar in 2016, with the thought of adapting the story to a movie. He was then told that the idea would be taken up with Jijo Punnoose. George said he is not aware what came out of it.

Jijo Punnoose is known for his two renowned films – Padayottam (1982) and My Dear Kuttichathan (1984). Barroz‘s screenplay was initially meant to be written by him based on a book he wrote in 2017 but later announced that a lot of changes have been made in the script, and the “the present form” was revised by Mohanlal with the help of director Rajeev Kumar, who had once been an associate of Jijo.

Jijo wrote in his blog: “Lalumon [an affectionate pet name to call Mohanlal] in the process of re-writing, fashioned the screenplay and the character of Barroz much like his recent hits – Odiyan, Pulimurugan, Lucifer and Marakkar, so as to satisfy his fan base. I could understand that with the changed screenplay, the focus of the film was to entertain the Malayalee family film audience. Lalumon could do it with his knowledge of 350 films (as against my mere 7). In this restructuring, Rajeev took over the role from me in assisting Lalumon,” The News Minute reports.

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It was in middle of 2018 that Mohanlal became a part of the film. The project had to be stopped twice with the outbreak of the first and second waves of COVID-19. By the time the Barroz got revamped in late 2021, the story, script and performers was changed.

The film, at first, was scheduled to release on March 28. The movie was produced by Antony Perumbavoor under the banner of Aashirvad Cinemas, and it features Mohanlal in the central role.