Media365
Kannada filmmaker Pushkara Mallikarjunaiah, who has produced the super hit Kannada films Avane Srimannarayana, Kirik Party and others, took to Instagram and claimed that Nani and Mrunal Thakur starrer Hi Nanna is a copy of his Kannada film Bheemasena Nala Maharaja, which was released in 2020 during the COVID. Shouryuv made his directorial debut with Hi Nanna, which was released on December 7, 2023. It is now facing plagiarism accusations.
Pushkar Mallikarjunaiah took to Instagram to claim that Hi Nanna was remade without officially buying the rights of the alleged original version. Along with a side-by-side photo of the two film posters, Pushkar penned a note claiming that Hi Nanna was an unofficial remake of his Kannada film and was made without acquiring the rights from the original creators. He also called out Nani directly, describing the alleged plagiarism act as a “cheap thing to do.”
Pushkar wrote, “Without taking #RemakeRights, Hi Nanna has been made by copying our original movie #BheemaSenaNalaMaharaja. What a cheap thing to do, @nameisnani.” So far, there has been no response to these allegations from the makers of Hi Nanna or Nani.
According to IMDb, the two movies do appear to have a similar storyline. However, calling out Hi Nanna as a copy may be a bit bold. In Bheemasena Nala Maharaja, the hero meets the heroine at a resort to tell his love story. There is a kid in the film too. Similarly, the hero in Hi Nanna, Nani, also narrates a story to the heroine, played by Mrunal Thakur, however, in a different setup. Many on social media shared that saying “Nani did a cheap thing” publicly was uncalled for.
