5 Bollywood Film Makers Who Were Slapped With A Legal Notice For Apparently Lifting Stories

Making a film isn’t an easy task. Weather you have an original story or an “Inspired” one as the film makers like to call it.

 Recently Kangna Ranaut’s Manikarnika landed in legal trouble for copyright infringement. Director Ketan Mehta has filed a case on the actress, for stealing the story. Ketan claims that he has been working on the script for over a decade. He even shared the script with the actress, and not only did she agree to shoot, but also insisted on co-directing the film with him. After two years worth of discussions the filmmaker and actress parted their ways on the project. Later Kangana announced Manikarnika as her next project with producer Kamal Jain, writer K Vijayendra Prasad and director Krish on board.

But is this the first time, that celebs have landed themselves in legal trouble for copyright issues?

Here’s a list of film makers, who were sued for stealing stories

Raabta

Source: firstpost

Upcoming hindi film, Raabta has been sent a legal notice from the makers of South Indian super hit Magadheera. Apparently, both the stories are based on a very similar plot of reincarnation, rebirth & lovers meeting again in second lives. 

However, the makers of Raabta have a credible defence in terms of story, especially ideas like that of reincarnation should be free of copyright issues. Producer of the film, Dinesh Vijan was quoted as saying, “I see Bollywood and the southern film industries as one industry, and I’ve directed films before, and I’ve never copied anything. These things don’t need to go to court. I had offered a screening of Raabta for the makers of Magadheera, but they didn’t see it. [The issue] could’ve been dealt with a month earlier had they watched the film. A lawsuit does create panic and it’d be very silly if I say that it doesn’t bother me.”

Sarkar 3

Source: youtube

Ram Gopal Verma’s Sarkar 3, starring Amitabh Bachchan, got in a legal trouble. Narendra Hirawat & Co filed a case against the makers of the upcoming Ram Gopal Varma’s directorial regarding the copyright issues.

Holder of copyrights of over 1300 movies, Narendra Hirawat & Co acquired the copyrights of “Sarkar” franchise after the release of the second part and is in possession of prequel, sequel, remake and all other irreversible world negative rights in perpetuity.

Hirawat said that  he was extremely disappointed with this, as they issued a notice in October as well, but the makers still didn’t buy the copyrights from them.

Baaghi

Source: koimoi.com

Tiger Shroff and Shraddha Kapoor-starrer 'Baaghi' has run into legal trouble, due to film's alleged similarities to Indonesian thriller, 'The Raid: Redemption,' the remake rights for which had been bought by another Indian production house.

The main similarity was that villain in both the films is cooped up in the topmost level of a tower and every floor of the tower is secured with highly-trained groups of armed men.

The producers' statement reads: "Yes, we have received the notice and our lawyers are in the process of drawing up our defence for the court hearing. Producers of the Hindi film industry have been facing this kind of harassment for some time now and it is really unfortunate how these cases come up before the release of the film. Invariably, anyone who knows or doesn't know the content, moves the court and it adds to unnecessary stress for the producers."

Rangoon

Source: indiatoday

Yet again, Kangna landed herself in a controversy,  her film Rangoon was issued a legal notice as her character was inspired by Fearless Nadia, Roy Wadia from Wadia Movietone Pvt. Ltd. has filed legal suit in Bombay High Court against the makers of the movie for copyright infringement. The firm states that the character of Kangana which is called as Julia in the movie bears a striking resemblance to Fearless Nadia, an Australian stunt actress originally named as Mary Evans.

However the filmmakers of Rangoon, say that any character cannot be copied, and there are apparently no similarities

Lingaa

Source: youtube

Even superstar Rajnikanth, couldn’t escape legal trouble when it came to copyright issues. Back in 201, Rajnikanth’s Lingaa was slapped with a legal notice. The Madras High Court  issued a notice to the makers of Tamil actioner “Lingaa” on a writ petition filed by aspiring filmmaker K.R. Ravi Rathinam who accused them of stealing his script.

The petition was against named superstar Rajinikanth, director K.S. Ravi Kumar, script writer B. Ponkumar and producer Rockline Venkatesh.

The petitioner submitted that that the pooja for his film Mullai Vanam 999 was held on February 24. He alleged that the producer and director of Lingaa had clandestinely stolen the storyline of his film from Youtube as he had made a posting on it.

He said he had invested 47 years of labour in the film industry.