After Shraddha Kapoor and Prabhas starrer Saaho being accused of plagiarism, now Ayushmann Khurrana starrer Bala has made it to the headlines for the same reason. The makers of Bala have been accused by a National Award-Winning filmmaker Praveen Morchhale, whose directorial Walking with the Wind bagged three National Awards in 2017. Praveen has filed a case against the production house Maddock Films and writer Niren Bhatt in the Bombay High Court under the Copyright Act 1957. Morchhale alleges that the story of Ayush starrer Bala, is similar to the screenplay of the film he has written and narrated to several people in the industry.
Speaking to Mirror about same, Praveen said, “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 National Award-Winning director also said that he hasn’t met any person associated to the film. He said, the case isn’t about meeting or narrating the film to Bala makers. He said, “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.”
Parveen Morchhale
But denying the allegations to Mirror, the Maddock Films told Mirror, “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,” read an official statement from the production house.
Praveen denied doing it for any money or publicity. He said if any of his idea or screenplay has been borrowed, completely or even partly, they will be liable to injunction from the court. This case is filed to make a statement that you cannot just take off on somebody’s copyrighted idea or screenplay.
Images Source; Instagram/ayushmannk,cinestaan