Summary Plea filed by Javed Akhtar and Salim Khan will decide the fate of films remake by same name.
MUMBAI: The Bombay high court on Tuesday began hearing an appeal filed by veteran scriptwriters Javed Akhtar and Salim Khan against an order of a single judge that held against them in the copyright case over 1973 blockbuster Zanjeer.
The appeal will now decide the fate of the films remake by the same name.
A bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud and Mahesh Sonak first tried to impress upon both sides to sit across and settle the issue amicably by giving a monetary compensation to the writers. The producers through their counsel Darius Khambata and Dinyar Madon objected as that would "open floodgates" as there were "hundreds of old films with them".
With no settlement in sight, Ravi Kadam representing the scripwriters began arguing the case by saying they were the first owners of the copyright for the script they had written and hence the producers had no right to make a remake without their permission. J
ustice S J Kathawalla of the Bombay high court on Monday had allowed the remake to be released this Thursday. He held that Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar the script writing duo of the original 1973 Amitabh Bachchan starrer did not make out a case of holding copyright to the script.
Khan and Akhtar "are certainly guilty of approaching this court," the judge said and observed that they themselves asserted, from the start, even publicly, that "Rs 6 crore would be a fair and reasonable compensation to permit a remake," and hence are not entitled to their only plea now to stop the film s release, even if the court were to hold that they were indeed the holders of the copyright.
The remake, also called Zanjeer, stars Priyanka Chopra and south Indian actor Ram Charan and is produced by Sumeet and Puneet Mehra, sons of Prakash Mehra the producer of the original Zanjeer.
The contention of the scriptwriters was that Prakash Mehra had being granted only a one time permission to use their script to make Zanjeer in 1973 not for remakes.
The single judge said it was hard to believe that Khan and Akhtar "so closely associated with the Film Industry" were not aware till April 2012 about the remake which the producers had "widely publicised since November 2011".
The judge said the duo also approached the Film writers association only nine months later this January and was unconvinced when they said they were "being led to believe that the producers would seek their permission for the remake" as the Mehras had disputed their rights to the script last year itself.
Delay apart, the judge went by a media interview, which even the judge viewed in court, given by Khan in 2010 to hold that he had sold the script and its rights to actor Dharmendra for Rs 2500 when Akhtar was not on the scene. Dharmendra, said the Mehras had then sold it to Prakash Mehra for Rs 4000.
The writers rubbished this claim as being "false and bogus" and produced a letter from Dharmendra to back their claim of never having sold it but at receiving only a token "shagun amount".
The producers said Prakash Mehra had paid Rs 55000 to Salim-Javed to write a full-bound script of the original Zanjeer, which the writers denied.
The judge however was not convinced. "After reading Dharmendra s letter I am prima facie satisfied that it is procured from Dharmendra only to use it in court to deal with answering the facts placed by the defendants (Mehras)."
Kadam said on Tuesday that the producers have shown no documentary proof of contract of service. Justice Chandrachud asked if there was any documents exhanged between Prakash Mehra and the writers? Kadam said there was none. The hearing is on.
