Recently a film has been released in Kannada called “Attahasa” which documents the story of Veerappan a notorious bandit who worked as a sandalwood and ivory smuggler in the forests in Karnataka,TN and Kerala. He was known for many notorious and brutal killings of Police officers and suspected informers. People in Karnataka will never forget the fact that he finally kidnapped Dr Rajkumar a matinee idol of Karnataka one of the most respected figures in karnataka.
Coincidentally four persons of the Veerappan Gang are now facing death sentence (Veerappan himself was killed in an encounter) and are now on the verge of execution with the rejection of their mercy petition by the President. In the light of the impending execution some supporters of the bandit are raising objections to the execution. In connection with this yesterday there was a heated debate in one of the Kannada TV channels where Mrs Muttulakshmi the wife of the bandit particiapted. She had a view that she had a “Copyright” on any film that is produced on Veerappan and the film producer had failed to get her permission to produce the film.
In this connection I have a serious doubt on how “Copyright” can be claimed by Veerappan’s wife for the story that involves Veerappan and his criminal deeds which are a representation of actual facts. It is not an artistic or literary creation of either Muttulakhsmi or even Veerappan himself. At best Muttulakshmi may have an objection that the depiction of Veerappan in the film is “Defamatory”.
I request other legal experts to comment on this academic issue.
Naavi
