ETV & ZEE’s Copyright Fight: What Is Audience’s Verdict?

Recently, popular OTT platforms ZEE5 and ETV Win fought a legal battle against each other for their respective web series Viraatapalem: PC Meena Reporting and Constable Kanakam. When the trailer of Viraatapalem dropped, ETV alleged that ZEE5 copied the content of Constable Kanakam to make the series. It further filed a copyright case against ZEE as well. Amidst the legal battle, both series have finally premiered digitally, and netizens on social media opined that Constable Kanakam had an edge over Viraatapalem.

While Viraatapalem premiered in June on ZEE5, Constable Kanakam premiered on August 14 on ETV Win. Upon watching both series, people felt that both projects are entirely different from each other, apart from a few minor factors, including the protagonist’s role as a lady constable.

Meanwhile, Constable Kanakam managed to generate more buzz than Viraatapalem upon its premiere. ETV Win has been active with its promotions and social media presence for quite some time. The successes of 90s, Anaganaga, and AIR also brought a lot of hype around ETV’s projects. Moreover, Constable Kanakam features a comparatively well-known star cast than Viraatapalem, which includes Varsha Bollamma, Avasarala Srinivas, Rajeev Kanakala, and others. These factors helped Constable Kanakam generate more anticipation around its release. Upon its premiere, the series has reportedly been generating a good response from the audience, too.

While it has been discussed that there are no similarities between the two series, it is ETV Win that got more recognition for Constable Kanakam in the end, according to social media users.