Kerala HC refuses stay orders on Mohanlal starrer Neru, film to release as planned

The Mohanlal starrer Neru, which was initially scheduled to release on December 21, recently found itself embroiled in a controversy.  A writer named Deepu K Unni had moved the court seeking a stay on film’s release alleging that the script for the movie was plagiarised from a screenplay that he had written. However, on Wednesday, the Kerala High Court refused to stay the release of the Mohanlal-starrer Neru. Now the Joseph film will hit the theatres as planned. 

Unni met Neru makers numerous times to discuss script

Earlier, while filing his petition for a court stay, Unni claimed that he had put together a script about an "emotional family drama", featuring a court story with a woman and a male lawyer as the protagonists, which was later sent to the makers of Neru. Unni further pointed out that he had met Joseph and Mayadevi numerous times to discuss the script and he was told by Joseph, that his next film would feature this script.

Later, Joseph and Mayadevi took his script to get more information from expert lawyers as the script was related to happenings in the courts. Unni said that was the last time there was an interaction with them. Many months later, Unni was startled to see the trailer of the film Neru, after which he moved the court.

Neru marks reunion of Mohanlal with Drishyam director

Though the stay was not granted, the Court directed to issue notice to the respondents including the Central government, director-cum-writer Jeethu Joseph and co-writer advocate Santhi Mayadevi.

Neru, which also stars Priyamani, marked the reunion of Mohanlal and Joseph after their super-successful collaboration on 2013 blockbuster Drishyam, followed by its sequels. 

(With Inputs from IANS)