EXCLUSIVE: A.R.MURUGADOSS' STATEMENT ON SARKAR STORY CONTROVERSY!

Sarkar is actor Vijay's next film, that is directed by AR Murugadoss and produced by Sun Pictures. It has Keerthy Suresh as the female lead while actors like Varalaxmi Sarathkumar, Yogi Babu, Radha Ravi and Pazha Karuppaiah play important roles.
 

The film is slated for a release on 6th November, on the occasion of Diwali. Ahead of the release, a person named Varun had accused that the Sarkar story is a copy of his story Sengol that was registered with the Film Writers Association, way back in 2007.

The President of the association, Bhagyaraj, upon examining the case, has issued a note that he surprisingly found the stories to be similar.

In response to these allegations, Behindwoods got in touch with director AR Murugadoss and this is what he had to say regarding the allegations: 

"More than being a film of mine, I feel problems always occur for Vijay sir's films. Whenever I collaborate with Vijay, there are issues that pop up from various sides. Not just me, there have been directors like Vijay (Thalaivaa), Atlee, and others, who have also faced similar situations.

On this story similarity issue, I personally feel that Bhagyaraj side's statement is one sided and biased, without properly enquiring both the sides. They have told that both the stories are similar. I would like to putforth one honest question. I'd want to know if they read the story of Sarkar. Did they see my bounded script?

A completely written bounded book is only considered as a story, with its screenplay and dialogues also attached in the paper. When the film's story was sent for registration, from our office, we got the bounded script sealed, and no one has read this book. I want him (K Bhagyaraj) to answer if he read my full bound script. I ask this question confidently because I know that this book hasn't gone out of our office since the day it got sealed after registration. No one came forward to read the story.

They just have the synopsis of my story. Synopsis is something like, a summarized version of my full story, which is just very few pages long. When they came to our office to check the similarity, they only read the synopsis, and they took a copy of that and left the place. They did not read the bounded script. Synopsis is a very thin line and many films in the past have had similar synopsis, but the story would be contrastingly different. They only have the synopsis.

Only when they read the full bound script, they'd get to know if there are any similarities, with the construction of the scenes and the situations. A bounded script gives so much of detail and importance to various aspects, and that would, in turn, give the reader, a better clarity. Atleast they should have seen our film (Sarkar), which they didn't. I told them I will show my film, the version, which is ready now. I was ready to play it for them, but they didn't want. Also, they didn't open my bounded script at all.

Just by having a film's synopsis in the hand, how could he say that both the films have similar stories? What a big mistake that is! It is a big punishment for me. They read the full story of that side,  but not mine, and how is that fair? Else, they could have set up a group of few people to watch our film. They weren't ready for that either.

Sarkar's scenes and screenplay has references in connection with the current Tamil Nadu politics, like, the current governing body, our Chief Minister's demise, and many such incidents that happened in 2017 and 2018. In that case, how could that match with a story, that has been registered in 2007? The political scenario at that time was completely different. How can there be a similarity when I have written the story connecting real life incidents that happened in the last year?

The only similarity between the two stories is a citizen's vote being misused. How can that be considered as a similarity with the entire story? My way of conceiving a situation could be totally different. Majority of the members from the committee actually told that both the stories are different, and among those, two people, even issued a written letter stating that both (Sarkar and Sengol) are different. But, I wonder why did Bhagyaraj have to issue a statement claiming that both the stories have similarity. Without a having a word with these members in the association, he voluntarily came up with a statement on his own.
 

This incident has put me into depression and I am heartbroken. I have written the complete story of Sarkar, with my set of assistants, in this office from 7 in the morning, until 9 PM in the night. Also, I have not met this person called Varun (the story writer of Sengol), and I don't have any experiences with him. I haven't spoken to him or met him anywhere outside or nothing of that sort has even happened. Even he would agree to that point."

For more details on this controversy, and in general, if you need to know about Sarkar, you can find the interview below. Get to know interesting details about the much awaited film from the Captain of the Ship!

EXCLUSIVE: A.R.MURUGADOSS' STATEMENT ON SARKAR STORY CONTROVERSY! VIDEO