Kamal says plagiarism case against his film was inside job

Chennai, Apr 13 (UNI) Actor Kamal Haasan, whose forthcoming film ''Dasavatharam'' was cleared of charge of plagiarism by Madras High Court a couple of days back, today said the petition against his film was the handiwork of someone from the Tamil film industry itself.

In a statement here, Kamal, who is playing ten roles in the film directed by K S Ravikumar, who had earlier directed Kamal in hits like ''Tenali''and ''Avvaishanmughi'', charged that it was an act to tarnish his image.

He said it was regrettable that ''these lumpen elements were from our own film industry''.

Elaborating, he said, ''what I was ready to dismiss as paranoia and rumour mongering, came true when a senior screenwriter in the industry, according to the information received from Mr Oscar Ravichandran- the producer of ''Dasavatharam'', approached Mr Ravichandran and Promised to make arrangements to get the petitioner withdrawn the case as he knew him.'' Kamal said, however, he did not entertain that suggestion and rightfully took the recourse to law.

It may be recalled that the petitioner against Kamal moved the Madras High Court submitting that Kamal had plagiarised the story of ''Dasavatharam'', after accepting the story which he had originally submitted to him seeking a break in films. However, the High Court dismissed the petition observing that the story of Kamal Haasan's film was quite different from the one submitted by the petitioner.

UNI