Vijay's Mersal which was all set to hit the screens for Deepavali has hit a roadblock.
The Madras High Court has issued an interim stay against the filmmakers using the title Mersal for the film's publicity, distribution, and release till October 3.
The court order comes after producer A Rajendran of AR Film Factory filed a case citing that he'd already registered the title Mersal Aayitten in 2015. Rajendran reportedly purchased the title from Mohammad Sadiq of Green Apple Pictures in 2014 and registered it in 2015. He's also said to have started making a film with the title in 2016.
Rajendran has said that he complained twice to the Producers' Council in June and August but that no action was taken. The producer then approached the court, asking that the court declares that both titles are the same.
Hearing the case, Judge Anitha Sumanth issued an interim stay on using the film's title for advertising, distribution or release, and has asked Sri Thenandal Films, the producers of Mersal, to file a response by October 3.
The teaser of the film was released on Thursday and has already gone viral. The Atlee directorial will see Vijay in three roles and Twitter had even launched a special emoji for the film's promo, wherein every time 'Mersal' is typed, an emoji with Vijay in it would appear.
With AR Rahman's music and actors like Samantha, Kajal Aggarwal, Nithya Menen, and SJ Suryah in the cast, expectations from the film which will release on October 18, are through the roof.
It remains to be seen how the Mersal team will deal with the court's order.