Rip-Off or Not? Makers of ‘Magadheera’ Take ‘Raabta’ to Court

Madhu Mantena has had the official remake rights for ‘Magadheera’ since eight years.

You could say, they had it coming. Ever since the trailer of Dinesh Vijeyan’s reincarnation saga Raabta with Sushant Singh Rajput and Kriti Sanon hit the internet, there have been countless comparisons to SS Rajamouli’s Telugu blockbuster Magadheera.

In producer-turned-director Dinesh Vijayan’s directorial debut Rabtaa, Jim Sarbh is cast in a role suspiciously akin to what Ram Charan Teja had played in S S Rajamouli’s 2009 Telugu film. Sarbh’s character jumps from one life to another to get back the love of his life played by Kriti Sanon. The idea seemed ripped from Magadheera and the Twitter kingdom hasn’t stopped trolling the Raabta team ever since the trailer came out.

And now the makers of Magadheera, producer Allu Arvind of Geetha Arts has taken the makers of Raabta to court seeking an injunction on the release of the film on June 9.

The injunction notice clearly states, “This is to inform…that we Geetha Arts, the original makers of Magadheera, felt…that the Hindi film Raabta is being remade violating the copy rights. Hence we approached the Hyderabad court seeking injunction against the film’s release. The Hyderabad court issued a notice to the Raabta producers and posted the matter for 1st June to decide whether Raabta should be permitted to release.”

Talk of Raabta being a Magadheera rip-off had reached producer Madhu Mantena who owns the official remake of rights of Magadheera.

Madhu paid a fortune to acquire the Hindi remake rights of Magadheera. He has been trying to remake Magadheera into Hindi for eight years. It’s a costly film. The Hindi remake is expected to have a budget of Rs 120 crore. At one point he almost succeeded in putting together the project with Shahid Kapoor. But the project fell apart. Madhu is still at it and he hopes to get the project going in 2018. There is no way he will allow a rip-off to steal his thunder.

A source close to Madhu Mantena