A comparison video claiming that national award winning filmmaker Vettri Maaran copied his debut film “Polladhavan” from 1948 Italian film “Bicycle thieves” surfaced in Twitter. The video compared the scenes of both the films where the protagonists could be seen losing their vehicle before searching for it in various places. However, Vettri Maaran, in one of the old interviews, made it clear that comparing “Bicycle thieves” and “Polladhavan” is a disgrace to the former and said that he made story by hearing about the experiences of his friend Andrew who lost his bike.

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Director Vettri Maaran who is considered as one of the most progressive filmmakers of our era, is known for his sensible public statements and for the stand he takes in public issues as well. The 44 year old filmmaker who is currently busy planning for his next projects with actors Suriya, Soori and Vijay, has won national award for directing “Aadukalam” which he says was inspired from “Amores Perros”.

However he got debuted through “Polladhavan”, a complete commercial flick. The film’s plot revolves around an ordinary office-going youth who loses his bike to thugs. Italian classic “Bicycle thieves” revolves around similar one line as the protagonist would lose his cycle without which he couldn’t have his job. The recent video which is doing rounds in Twitter, compares both the films and accused director Vettri Maaran of copying from the Vittorio De Sica directorial.

Watch the video and comments that surfaced for it below :

அடேய் வெற்றிமாறா உன்ன உத்தமன்னு நெனச்சுட்டு இருந்தேன்🤣🤣🤣

— மெர்சல் சிவா (@Sivaji_37) August 13, 2021

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No offense. We remade certain scenes nu sollirukalam thappila. It is not inspiration, scene by scene copy.

— தமிழ் பொழுதுபோக்கு 2.0 🎞️ (@vaangasirikalam) August 14, 2021

In an interview that took place nearly 10 years ago, Vettri Maaran would have brushed off the assumption by simply saying that it is a disgrace to “Bicycle thieves” if it gets compared with “Polladhavan” which is a commercial film of an assistant director who is in a desperate situation to make a film.

“Me and my friend Andrew worked together with Director Kathir sir. At that time, his bike “Kinetic Challenger” got stolen. He belongs to Ennore and was searching for the bike with his friends. He would share his experiences to me in a daily manner. I got excited on hearing about the incidents he was sharing with me. It sounded as an excellent material to me and I thought of making a story out of it.” Vettri said and went on to explain how he anticipated the comparison.

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Watch the video below :

“While starting to write, we know that the film will be compared with bicycle thieves and would accuse me of “copying”. I also expected people to say that I got “inspired” from “Bicycle thieves”. We expected it and we also know how to handle it. Right from Day 1, I have been telling it that it is a disgrace for bicycle thieves if it gets compared with “Polladhavan”. People who know “Bicycle thieves” well wouldn’t compare both the films as “Polladhavan” is an ordinary commercial flick. It was a film made by a desperate assistant director whereas “Bicycle thieves” is a classic. It will stay as a classic as long as cinema exists. It is wrong to compare both the films” the filmmaker said in the interview.