Akshay Kumar’s ‘Toilet: Ek Prem Katha’ in a copyright row
| Jul 1, 2017, 16:34 IST
A legal notice and a cease and desist notice for the trailer and promotional campaign of the upcoming Akshay Kumar and Bhumi Pednekar starrer 'Toilet: Ek Prem Katha' has been sent by filmmaker Praveen Vyas who claims that the film is a direct copy of his 2016 award winning docu-feature 'Manini'.
Accusing that several scenes and dialogues of the upcoming film have been copied from 'Manini', Praveen spoke to a leading tabloid and informed, "Manini follows the female protagonist as she protests against lack of a toilet in her marital home on the first night of her marriage after female relatives wake her up before sunrise to tend to nature’s call in an open field. The scenes in 'Toilet: Ek Prem Katha’s' trailer shows the same interaction between characters."
The filmmaker further reasoned, "Its plot was novel and the characters unique and my docu-feature was commended for its creativity and treatment. No one can make another cinematographic work or any other derivative work without my written consent if their work directly resembles mine."
However, Shital Bhatia, who is co-producing 'Toilet: Ek Prem Katha' denied the allegations and said, "These allegations are baseless and border on harassment. The script of our film has been registered under our writers’ names, Siddharth and Garima, with the authorised industry association since 2013. Furthermore, the film has been in the public domain through various news stories since July 2015. We firmly deny all the claims made by this gentleman who is obviously misled. It is sad that genuine producers have become soft targets for this kind of a nuisance."
CREDITS: MUMBAI MIRROR
Accusing that several scenes and dialogues of the upcoming film have been copied from 'Manini', Praveen spoke to a leading tabloid and informed, "Manini follows the female protagonist as she protests against lack of a toilet in her marital home on the first night of her marriage after female relatives wake her up before sunrise to tend to nature’s call in an open field. The scenes in 'Toilet: Ek Prem Katha’s' trailer shows the same interaction between characters."
The filmmaker further reasoned, "Its plot was novel and the characters unique and my docu-feature was commended for its creativity and treatment. No one can make another cinematographic work or any other derivative work without my written consent if their work directly resembles mine."
However, Shital Bhatia, who is co-producing 'Toilet: Ek Prem Katha' denied the allegations and said, "These allegations are baseless and border on harassment. The script of our film has been registered under our writers’ names, Siddharth and Garima, with the authorised industry association since 2013. Furthermore, the film has been in the public domain through various news stories since July 2015. We firmly deny all the claims made by this gentleman who is obviously misled. It is sad that genuine producers have become soft targets for this kind of a nuisance."
CREDITS: MUMBAI MIRROR