Sudeep-Shivaraj Kumar Clashing over the Title 'Leader'

Sudeep and Shivaraj Kumar have not been in good terms for a few years now. It all started with a minor incident that took place during a cricket tournament a few years ago. Since then, they have had differences over a couple of issues. Now, there seems to be a big clash waiting to happen over the titles of their upcoming Kannada films.

Recently, director Prakash announced that he was joining hands with Sudeep for a project titled "The Leader". But on Friday, (9 October), a new project of Shivanna was announced with the title – "The Leader Shivaraj Kumar". The makers of the movie had given an ad in a leading daily and it has come as a shock to the industry.

This is not the first time Sudeep and Shivaraj are clashing over the titles. Earlier, their movies "Varadanayaka" and "Varada" had faced title issues. But the issue fizzled out as Shivanna's movie failed to take off.

On the other end, Raghunath, the producer of Sudeep's movie has said that he had registered the title "Leader" a few years ago. "The title was registered three years ago and we have renewed it every year. We announced the film only a few days ago. I am sure Shivaraj Kumar does not know that the title was not with the producer of his movie. If he had known, he would not have allowed this misunderstanding to happen," the Bangalore Mirror quoted the producer as saying.

Raghunath has also written to the Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce stating that the rules clearly states that another title with a prefix or suffix cannot be given. However, Shivappa, the producer of Shivaraj's film, is aware of the fact that the title "The Leader" has already been registered but he says that his movie is different from Sudeep's flick and Shivanna's film title is yet to be registered.