Bhatts asked to deposit Rs 10 lakh for Jannat 2 telecast

10 Jul 2012

The troubles for Jannat 2's satellite release just don't seem to end. First it was the Censor Board not allowing the telecast of the film before 11pm and now the Bombay High Court has asked the Bhatts, who are the producers of Jannat 2, to deposit Rs. 10 lakh if they want to go ahead with the TV release of the film. The Bhatt's have sold the satellite rights of Jannat 2 to Star TV, which has not yet decided on the world TV premier of the film.

On Monday, a division bench of Chief Justice Mohit Shah and Justice Nitin Jamdar passed the order while hearing a petition filed by Mumbai-based writer Kapil Chopra alleging copyright infringement against filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt and his brother Mukesh Bhatt.

In May this year, Kapil filed a case against the Bhatts alleging plagiarism. He maintained that he has written the story of Jannat 2 and had registered his screenplay with the Film Writers Association way back in 2007. He sent the script to Mukesh in 2009 but got no reply. Apparently, Kapil even met Jannat 2 director Kunal Deshmukh a couple of times and narrated the same story to him and left a bound copy of the script with the director but he got no response from him too. But earlier this year, when he saw the promos of Jannat 2, he realized that his screenplay had been copied, including the plot, dialogues and characters.

However, the Bhatt's have rubbished Kapil's claims and insist that it is their inhouse writer Shagufta Rafique who has written the script of Jannat 2.

The High Court has asked the producers to submit the movie's DVD in court to see if there are any similarities between the film and the script by petitioner Kapil Chopra. The court has adjourned the matter to July 20 for further hearing.