The Madras High Court Bench here on Wednesday ordered notice to the Director-General of Police (DGP) and actor Rajinikanth, among many others, on a writ petition filed by an aspiring filmmaker accusing the crew of Lingaa, the actor’s movie in the making, of having stolen his script.

Justice M. Venugopal also ordered notice, returnable by November 19, to producer ‘Rockline’ Venkatesh, Kannada script writer B. Ponkumar and director K.S. Ravi Kumar. He, however, refused to pass interim orders restraining the crew from releasing the film’s music on Sunday.

When the judge questioned why Mr. Rajinikanth, who had nothing to do with the alleged theft of the script, was included as a respondent in the case, counsel for the petitioner W. Peter Ramesh Kumar said the actor had taken distribution rights for the film, and hence he was a party.

According to the petitioner, K.R. Ravi Rathinam of the Tamil Nadu Housing Board colony at Chinna Chokkikulam here, the script of Lingaa was actually the one he had written for directing a movie ‘Mullai Vanam 999’ based on the construction of the Mullaperiyar dam by John Pennycuick.

He accused the Lingaa team of having stolen the script after he uploaded a video relating to it on YouTube, and urged the court to order an inquiry into the issue.

(TH)