Refusing to issue a stay order on the Chinese release of the Aamir Khan movie PK , the High Court, instead, issued a notice to the producers of the movie, Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Raj Kumar Hirani.
This was in response to a stay petition filed by a Hindi novelist Kapil Isapuri, who had earlier approached the High Court claiming damages of Rs. 1 crore from the makers of the film, which he alleges was plagiarised from his book ‘Farishta’. “Since the film has been released worldwide and neither this court nor any other has given any injunction... the stay cannot be granted,” said Justice Najmi Waziri. Mr. Isapuri in his plea has stated that further profits or fame earned by the film, PK , in China would be at the cost of his hard work, and had requested the court to ‘restrain the defendants ( PK makers), their agents, distributors, attorney, servants, associates from telecasting or broadcasting or in any other manner communicating to the public in China, the film titled, PK, or its sequels or its reproduction in any forms’. The petitioner has claimed in his earlier petition that the producers had ‘stolen the characters, expression of ideas and scenes from the novel’.
The lawyers for the filmmakers said that they had initially registered the script with the Writers Association in Mumbai on July 29, 2010, with the title Ghar Jaana Hai . Thereafter, five versions of the script were submitted and the final version of the script was registered in 2012 with the title, PK .
Notice issued to
the producers of
the movie, Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Raj Kumar Hirani
