Nivin Pauly’s recent release Malayalee From India has been creating a buzz in the entertainment industry over the alleged stolen screenplay controversy. The film is directed by Dijo Jose Antony while the screenplay is written by Sharis Mohammed. The film is produced by Listin Stephen under the banner of Magic Frames. It was released in theatres on May 1. Scriptwriter Nishad Koya has claimed that the makers have plagiarised the screenplay of the film from his script which he wrote back in 2021.
A day before the release of the film Malayalee From India, Nishad alleged that the makers had stolen his script. He shared a detailed post outlining the plotline of the film on Facebook. However, it was deleted just hours before the movie’s release.
Listin Stephen said that the Film Producers Association had intervened and asked Nishad to remove the Facebook post. He also lashed out at the scriptwriter Nishad and said that the movie Malayalee from India film was announced one and a half years ago.
“If Nishad had a complaint, he could have approached the Film Producers Association or Film Employees Federation of Kerala,” said Listin Stephen as quoted by Onmaronama. He called it a wrong approach and said that it directly or indirectly affected the release of the movie.
In response to this, Nishad Koya said that he alerted the director Dijo Jose Antony about the similarities in the script over a year ago. In an interview with The Cue Studio, the scriptwriter said that he wrote the script back in 2021.
Jayasuriya was selected for the lead role while director Joshiy was set the direct the movie. “Everything went fine and the movie was even announced but then came some last-minute quibbles, taking away the long hard work” said Nishad. The movie didn’t materialise and so Nishad didn’t feel the need to register the script under his name. However, the scriptwriter claims that he has emails which serves as proof that he was working on the script in 2019. It was tentatively titled: Indo-Pak.
During this time, Jayasuriya narrated the story to Dijo. The director was impressed by the story. However, he was not interested in pursuing this project. Later, through Prithviraj Sukumaran, Nishad Koya came to know about the similarities between his and Dijo’s next film script.
“I was taken aback and approached Dijo to get confirmation. The director meanwhile dismissed all such stories and said he was planning a total humour film and the only similarity with my script would be the lead actor’s visit to Pakistan,” said Nishad Koya.
After watching the trailer, Nishad Koya was sure about the plagiarism. He felt necessary to put an FB post of my script to trigger a response from the filmmakers, he added.
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