Legal Headache for Pan-India Titles

Rajinikanth’s upcoming pan-India film, Jailer, has landed itself in trouble due to its title. While the actor’s fans are excited about his role as a jailer in the movie, another Malayalam film with the same title is set to release around the same time.

The makers of the Malayalam film have demanded a title change for Rajinikanth’s film in Kerala to avoid confusion. However, the stories of the two films are unrelated. The Malayalam Jailer team argues that since they are making a smaller film, they should be allowed to keep the title. They also believe that the presence of Mohanlal, a big star in Malayalam cinema, in Rajinikanth’s film will not affect their collections in Kerala.

On the other hand, Sun Pictures, the production company backing Rajinikanth’s film, stated that as the Tamil ‘Jailer’ features a much larger star and the production company operates at a corporate level, changing the title is not feasible.

Previously, it was enough if the makers registered a title in the language in which they were making it. But now, because of this pan-India phenomenon, there is a constant fear of legal issues over the title as the film is going to release in multiple languages. So the makers have to be extra careful while choosing a title for pan-India films.

Directed by Nelson Dilipkumar, Jailer has an ensemble cast comprising Shiva Rajkumar, Mohanlal, Tamannaah, Sunil, and Ramya Krishna.