Ranveer Singh’s new film in trouble over story rights
Premium- Producer V Ravichandran has sent a legal notice to director S Shankar, who had also helmed the 2005 film, saying the rights to the original story and screenplay belong exclusively to him
New Delhi: Ranveer Singh’s latest film, the Bollywood remake of Tamil hit Anniyan, is in trouble even before it has gone on the floors. Producer V Ravichandran has sent a legal notice to director S Shankar, who had also helmed the 2005 film, saying the rights to the original story and screenplay belong exclusively to him and cannot be exploited by anyone else. Shankar has refuted the claim.
A similar controversy had erupted a year ago when Zee Studios had roped in Tiger Zinda Hai and Sultan director Ali Abbas Zafar for a three-part remake of the 1987 classic, Mr India. The fact that the film's original director Shekhar Kapur and lead actor Anil Kapoor were unaware of the sale of remake rights and irked about not being consulted points to deeper loopholes in Bollywood, media industry analysts had said.
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Legal experts had emphasized that a lot of countries such as the US, Australia and New Zealand follow similar norms as India where the copyright act says that in the absence of a contracted agreement to the contrary, the producer is the only owner of cinematic rights. In the UK though, there are laws that allow the director to also hold rights.
In the past too, Bollywood has seen disputes on IPR sharing. In 2013, the remake of Amitabh Bachchan-starrer Zanjeer had landed in a controversy as original writer, Salim Khan, had demanded ₹6 crore as compensation since the makers did not take his permission before going ahead with the movie.
Filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma was directed by the Delhi HC to pay producer Ramesh Sippy ₹10 lakh as punitive damages for copying portions of the latter’s all-time blockbuster Sholay in his film Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag that "distorted and mutilated the original copyright work of the plaintiffs".
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