Zanjeer remake sails through Bombay High Court

Finally the makers ofZanjeerremake are relieved as Bombay High Court has granted Adai Mehra Productions the rights to produce and release the film. The remake of the Amitabh and Jaya Bachchan-starrer was involved in a legal battle over production between the sons of the deceased filmmaker Prakash Mehra - Amit Mehra, Sumeet Mehra and Puneet Mehra. Earlier a sole arbitrator had restrained AMPL from remaking the film but Justice R. D. Dhanuka has overruled the interim order.

Adai Mehra Productions Pvt Ltd (AMPL), which is owned by Amit Mehra, had acquired the rights of remakingZanjeerin Hindi and Telugu from Prakash Mehra Productions (PMP), which is owned by the three Mehra brothers. PMP claimed to be the owner of all rights ofZanjeer. Writers Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar posed a problem for the remake team by claiming that they were the owners of the copyright of the script and literary work of the originalZanjeer. Following the claims, AMPL asked PMP to clear the title issue and stopped making payments. As a result, PMP ended the agreement with AMPL regarding the remake rights. Then the matter was transferred to a sole arbitrator, who issued an interim order holding back AMPL from the production and publicity of the film.

Through Counsel Virag Tulzapurkar, SU Kamdar and Ameet Naik, AMPL challenged the order in the HC and Justice Dhanuka has passed his judgement in favour of AMPL, provided they pay the remaining installments to PMP in court within eight weeks. The HC however has referred the matter back to the arbitrator who has to decide the issue finally within four months. But on a request made by the advocate for Sumeet and Puneet Mehra, the court has granted a three week stay on its order.