South Indian Film Writers Association dismisses Seeman’s complaint against director Lingusamy

The South Indian Film Writers Association (SWAN) has written to director and politician Seeman, saying that there was no prima facie evidence to substantiate his charges against director Lingusamy and therefore, no action could be taken based on his complaint.

On April 28 this year, Seeman lodged a complaint with SWAN pertaining to his story ‘Pagalavan’, which incidentally has been registered with the association. Seeman complained to SWAN that director Lingusamy had a story that resembled his Pagalavan and that he would suffer losses if Lingusamy was permitted to make this story into a film.

Perusing his complaint against director Lingusamy, the complaints committee of SWAN found that Seeman had lodged the same complaint against Lingusamy almost eight years ago with the Directors’ Union. They found that acting on his complaint, the then President of the Directors’ Union, Vikraman, and the then Secretary of the Union, R K Selvamani, had investigated the matter and had found that both directors did not know about each others stories and that there was only a shade of resemblance between the two stories.

They had then observed that this shade of resemblance too was something that could have happened coincidentally. After having ruled out any foul play, the Directors’ Union office bearers brought both parties to the negotiation table and resolved the issue to the satisfaction of all parties concerned. An agreement too was signed by both Lingusamy and Seeman, along with directors Vikraman and R K Selvamani who were witnesses to this resolution of conflict.

Pointing out that the Directors’s Union office bearers had sent them a copy of this truce agreement that was signed in 2013, the President of SWAN, director Baghyaraj, said, “All the members of the Complaints Committee went through the agreement and agree that director Lingusamy has not violated any of the conditions laid down in the agreement. Therefore, all the members of this committee unilaterally agree that there is no prima facie evidence to act on your complaint against director Lingusamy.”