Television producer and script writer Yash Patnaik has moved the Bombay High Court claiming that the film Ra.One, starring Shah Rukh Khan was conceptualised by him, and the producers of the film have copied his idea of an Indian superhero and thus violated the copy right act.
Division Bench of Chief Justice Mohit Shah and Justice RS Dalvi will be pronouncing the order on the plea on Friday. According to Patnaik, he has spent thousands of hours on conceptualising the entire superhero film and on December, 26, 2006, he had registered the concept with the Film Writers Association.
Subsequently, he made several presentations to the Mushtaq Sheikh, the screen play writer of the film Ra.One, who over the years had given him evasive replies and even in December 2010, at an award function stated that he had shelved the project of making the film on Patnaik’s concept.
He said, “It was a surprise for me to see that Khan’s was wearing the same costume as did my super hero when the promos came out in January. Thereafter I made several inquiries and later found glaring similarities between my concept and the film. Thus we moved the single bench of the high court which rejected our claim on October 12 and thus we moved an appeal.”
Senior Counsel Ravi Kadam, appearing for Patnaik pointed out various similarities in the film and the concept of Patnaik. However, Khan’s counsel Dr V Tulzapurkar argued, “It is nothing but a black mailing tactic by Patnaik, and if was really concerned about his concept he would have moved the high court earlier and not when some few days are left before the release.”
Kadam said, “Our prayer is only for seeking an injunction restraining the release of the film without giving credits to us.” The court after hearing both of the sides suggested the defendants Khan and the producers pay a bank guarantee in the court, which was refused. Accordingly the court reserved its order and informed that it will pronounce its judgment on Friday.