Puri Jagannadh makes shocking admission on copying iBoy for iSmart Shankar

Director Puri Jagannadh made a shocking admission on copying movie iBoy without referring to it. He said that the chip concept from iSmart Shankar starring Ram Pothineni is inspired by Hollywood movies.

iSmart Shankar is slated for release in the cinema halls on July 18. Kick-starting its publicity, the makers of the film recently released its trailer on the internet. The chip concept featured in this video fuelled speculations that the movie must be a copy of the Hollywood film iBoy starring Bill Milner.

In an interview, Puri Jagannadh, who is currently busy with the promotions of iSmart Shankar, admitted that a portion of the movie has been inspired by Hollywood films, but did not mention the name of iBoy.

"I did not have a hit after Temper and this was hurting me big time. Somehow I wanted to make a hit film and in this process met Ram. He told me to write a bad boy kind of a role for him and that is how ISmart Shankar was born. The chip concept is inspired by Hollywood films and I have set the rest of the story in Telangana," Puri Jagannadh told in an interview to 123Telugu.

The director denied having difficulty in adapting the Telangana dialect for iSmart Shankar. "I did not do any homework for the Telangana backdrop. One of my co-directors helped me with the dialect and as my wife is from Telangana I am used to this style of speaking at home," added Puri Jagannadh.

Talking about Ram Pothineni, Puri Jagannadh heaped praises on the hero. The director said, "Ram has this crazy energy which has not been tapped by many directors. I tried to bring all of that out and as his role is a local mass guy, Ram has gone all out and his performance is the biggest highlights of the film. I feel that the newcomers should learn how to act after seeing Ram's performance."

iSmart Shankar is an action film, which is written and directed by Puri Jagannadh, who has also jointly produced it with actress Charmme Kaur. Ram Pothineni is seen romancing two young actresses like Nidhhi Agerwal and Nabha Natesh in the film, which is expected to bring back the fallen glory of both the hero and director.