The fans of Ayushmann Khurana — who is basking in the glory of the success of his latest film Dream Girl — has a piece of bad news. Yes, Ayushmann Khurana’s upcoming film Bala seems to have landed in legal trouble as National Award winner director Praveen Mochale has reportedly filed a case in the Bombay High Court for copyright violation.
According to reports, Praveen Mochale accused the Bala’s writer and producer of lifting the story from his screenplay. Notably, this was the second case of plagiarism filed against Bala.
Prior to this, in March this year, Shaadi Mein Zaroor Aana assistant director Kamal Kant Chandra had filed a case in the Bombay High Court against Ayushmann, director Amar and producer Dinesh Vijan, accusing them of lifting the idea from his project, Wig.
Directed by Amar Kaushik and starring Ayushmann Khurana, Bala is based on the story of a balding man.
As per the report in Mumbai Mirror, Praveen filed a case under the Copyright Act 1957, alleging that Bala’s story sounds similar to his screenplay that he has narrated to several people in the industry.
“I read a news article on Bala being a satirical comedy about premature balding, which was an idea I had conceived in 2005. I worked on it for two years and registered the story with the Film Writers’ Association (FWA) in 2007. After compiling information from various sources, I have arrived at the conclusion that Bala is very similar to my story and screenplay,” the report quoted him as saying.
Praveen, who has not yet met with anyone associated with the film, told the leading tabloid, “But the case isn’t about meeting or narrating the film to them. I’ve met hundreds of people and narrated my story to them, anyone could have put the idea in their minds. Since I have registered my concept and script, I can narrate it to as many people as I want, nobody can copy it.”
He added that the title of his script was Mr Yogi, and, it was similar to Bala, it was a satirical comedy on the struggles and hardships faced in such situations.
Maddock Films, however, claimed they had no information about a case filed against them. “Maddock is not aware of any case being filed against it by Mr Morchhale and denies that he has anything to do with its film Bala. Nobody from Maddock has ever met with Mr Morchhale or is even aware of him being associated with a story of a bald man,” the daily quoted an official statement from the production house.
Also Read: 20 Unknown & Interesting Facts About Dream Girl Star Ayushmann Khurrana