Vineeth Sreenivasan about Aby and Vimaanam

Aby, directed by debutant Srikanth Murali is scheduled to hit screens on February 23. The movie stars the multi talented Vineeth Sreenivasan in the title role.

Aby has been in the news ever since it was announced. The makers of Prithviraj’s upcoming movie Vimaanam had filed a case against Aby as both the movies had similar themes about a man who builds an aircraft on his own.

Santhosh Echikkanam, the writer of Aby had written a story about a boy and his dream to fly when he heard about the life of Saji Thomas. Saji hailing from Idukki is a speech and visually impaired person who out of his sheer will power designed a lightweight aircraft on his own. Santhosh met Saji and incorporated some of his real life incidents in his script.

Later, Saji sold the rights to Pradeep M Nair, who is the director of Vimaanam. When the team of Vimaanam heard about Aby’s similar story,they approached FEFKA. When that didn’t find a soultion they filed a case in August to stall the shoot of Aby. The court dismissed their plea following which they filed a case on the grounds of personality rights.

After the legal issues, Santhosh Echikkanam reworked on his script and removed the scenes inspired from Saji’s real life. The verdict was recently pronounced in Aby’s favour.

Vineeth was asked about his opinion about the controversy in a recent interview.

He said that the director and writer of Aby narrated the story to him two and years back when he was also thinking of making a movie with a similar story. He sounded confident about how Aby was conceived and is also well aware that nothing unethical has happened behind it. Vineeth also added that he didn’t have any prick of conscience to do the role. His character in Aby is not physically challenged while Prithviraj is playing a deaf and mute person in Vimaanam.

Mareena Michael is playing the female lead in Aby. Bollywood actor Maneesh Chowdary is playing a pivotal character in the movie. Aju Varghese, Suraj Venjaramoodu, Sudheer Karamana, Harish Perady, Dileesh Pothen, Praseeda Menon, Maya Menon and many other actors are also part of the cast.

Suvin K Varkey has produced the movie under the banner Little Big Films.