Toilet Ek Prem Katha makers argue in copyright violation case in Jaipur Metropolitan Court

15 Sep 2017

On July 18, we had reported how Jaipur-based filmmaker, Pratik Sharma, has sued the makers of Toilet Ek Prem Katha and alleged that the punchline and subject of the film is similar to Gutrun Gutargun , a film which he finished way back in 2015. A copyright infringement case was filed by Pratik Sharma against the producers of Toilet Ek Prem Katha , Plan C Studios and Viacom18 Motion Pictures, in a Jaipur Metropolitan Court, on July 7. According to Pratik, a line in Toilet Ek Prem Katha is same as the one in his film Gutrun Gutargun that is, Aurat shadi karke ghar mai aati hai, usko toilet nahi milta, bawal hota hai, ant mai pati usko toilet bana kar deta hai.Pratik Sharma said that because of this dialogue, the distributors are not ready to buy his film. He reveals that Gutrun Gutargun was to release on July 28 this year but after the trailer of Toilet Ek Prem Katha was out in around mid-June, the distributors backed off. On Monday July 31, the case finally came up for hearing. G D Bansal, advocate for Pratik Sharma said that the arguments remained inconclusive and that the next hearing is today, that is, August 1. Meanwhile, S S Hora, counsel of Viacom18 Motion Pictures revealed that they argued in court that an idea or a concept cannot fall under Copyright Act. Hence, theres no violation of the said act. Also, the subject on which Toilet Ek Prem Katha is based is already in public domain and hence he demanded that no relief should be given to the complainant. The Jaipur Metropolitan Court had asked the makers of Toilet Ek Prem Katha on July 26 to file a reply or enter into arguments in this case on July 31. Earlier, they had issued a returnable notice on July 22. But a strike by the clerical staff was going on and hence the court gave Toilet Ek Prem Katha makers a new date July 26 for filing their reply. Toilet Ek Prem Katha stars Akshay Kumar , Bhumi Pedenkar, Anupam Kher and Divyendu Sharma. It is directed by Shree Narayan Singh and is all set to release on August 11, 2017.