June 16, 2025 — Acclaimed filmmaker Sanal Kumar Sasidharan has accused director Tharun Moorthy’s film Thudarum, starring Mohanlal and Shobana, of copying the core structure of his unreleased 2020 script titled Theeyattam. The allegation comes nearly two months after the film’s theatrical release and commercial success.
In a detailed Facebook post, Sanal claimed that while the makers might have replicated the “skeleton” of his story, they failed to capture its essence. He wrote that the storyline of Theeyattam revolved around an auto-rickshaw driver named Ambi, who is wrongly implicated in a murder after a severed head is found in his vehicle. He pointed out that even a key dialogue from his script — “Konnaal paapam thinnaal theerum” — was included in Thudarum, despite not fitting the film’s context.
Sanal also announced that he would soon publish his complete script online to let the public assess the similarities for themselves. The screenplay of Thudarum is credited to KR Sunil and director Tharun Moorthy, and the film is produced by M Renjith under Rejaputhra Visual Media.