‘Haven’t signed any agreements on film rights,’ : Sanal Kumar Sasidharan

Chennai : Well-known Malayalam director Sanal Kumar Sasidharan, who is best known for his film ‘Sexy Durga’, on Friday, clarified that he had not signed any agreements with anyone regarding his rights in any of the films he had directed from ‘Oralpokkam’ to ‘Chola’ and its Tamil version ‘Alli’.
Taking to Instagram to make his stand clear, the well-known director wrote: “This is a public notice: I have not signed any agreements with anyone regarding my rights in any of the films I have directed from ‘Oralpokkam’ to ‘Chola’ and its Thamizh version ‘Alli’.
“As ‘Oralpokkam’ was made with crowd funding, it was decided at the time of production that the copyright would be left free after five years of its release and accordingly, the copyright of that film now belongs to the entire public.
“After the systematic violence against me and my films started in 2019, there have been moves to bury all the films from ‘Ozhivudivasathe Kali’ to ‘Kayattam’.The latest proof is the letter sent to the sales agent by Joju George urging them to stop the international distribution of the film ‘Chola’ without consulting me.
I will write more about this later with proofs if needed.”Now, I am writing this for another reason. I am the original content creator of all my films. Their censor certificates are the indisputable proofs of this fact.
As the original content creator, I retain full copyright in the absence of any other agreements.”No copyright transfer agreements exist with anyone for any other film, except an agreement with Manju Warrier for the transfer of my copyright in the film ‘Kayattam’.
“Legally this is the status until I have written and transferred my copyright by a written agreement after the fulfilment of the verbal agreements that various producers arrived with me.”
“In this case, it is hereby made public that any sale or contract of my films other than ‘Kayattam’ without my knowledge or consent is void as per the Copyright Act.”