Since Mersal's release, there were many speculations that few scenes from the film has shades of Rajinikanth’s Moondru Mugam and Kamal Haasan’s Apoorva Sagodharargal.

Post its release, notice was sent to the Tamil Nadu Producers' Council (TNPC) alleging plagiarism. Producer Kathiresan, who has acquired the original rights from Satya Movies had plans of doing a remake of the classic starring Kollywood actor Raghava Lawrence in 2016, but unfortunately was delayed due to the actor's previous commitment.

According to a report shown on Polimer News, the issue was taken again by the Producer's Council recently where both Atlee and Kathiresan were present. 

Kathiresan, who is now the vice president of TNPC, said that the plot is similar to Moondru Mugam and that Atlee has to compensate by giving him 30% of his profit, which he got for Mersal. As proof, he showed a 30-minute video which had scenes from Mersal resembling Moondru Mugam.

However, Atlee denied this and said that the video clips may be similar to Moondru Mugam, but it is purely his creativity.

Atlee also said that Karthiresan can approach the court with these charges and that he will prove the same legally. To that, TNPC recommended that they can form a committee, which will have 5 prominent writers and directors from the industry, who will watch the film and give a solution to the problem.