Just a month before it hits the theatres, Akshay Kumar’s ‘Toilet: Ek Prem Katha’ has landed itself in legal trouble. A Rajasthani filmmaker has slapped the makers of the movie with a legal notice for violation of the Copyright Act stating its song ‘Hans Mat Pagli’ is a copy of a song from his Rajasthani regional movie that released recently.
The filmmaker further forwarded the complaint to the Indian film and TV Producers Council (IFTPC) which took cognisance and sought clarification from Neeraj Pandey, who has co-produced ‘Toilet: Ek Prem Katha’ with Akshay. “One of the famous songs in the movie, ‘Hans Mat Pagli Pyar Ho Jaega’ was approved in the favor of us by IFPTC and till date its registration is with us,” said Tiwari, adding that upcoming movie copied it, which is a violation of the Copyright Act. ‘Toilet- Ek Prem Katha’ in its promo is screening the very song without permission of us. Also, the song of Akshay’s movie has similar picturisation of the scene on Holi festival in Braj area which is similar to the picturisation in 'Laadli',” said Vipin Tiwari, head of Teetri production who has directed and produced ‘Laadli’ movie which was released on April 7.
The movie was themed on ‘Save the girl child’ issue and was given ‘U’ certificate by the Censor board. Tiwari has demanded removal of scenes from the movie. “I hereby call upon you to immediately withdraw the promos in this regard used without permission of my client and further not to release movie and to give reply to the said infringement of copyright on punch line and use of title song within a period of 7 days from receipt of notice,” stated the notice that was sent to Neeraj Pandey, Viacom 18 Media Private Limited and two others.
The IFTPC has sent a letter to Pandey, asking him to submit a reply within three days on copyright violation, failing which the matter would be escalated and referred to the disputes settlement committee.
CREDITS: DNA