Wednesday (November 6): “Bala”, Ayushmann Khurrana’s new film, has landed in controversy with two filmmakers approaching courts with claims that it has plagiarized their concepts about a bald man and his many travails.
While Kamal Kant Chandra, who is working on his debut film “Marksheet”, approached the Bombay High Court and then the Supreme Court, filmmaker Naman Goyal has gone to the Jaipur district court.
On Monday, the Supreme Court directed the Bombay High Court to arrive at a resolution by November 8.
A Jaipur district court has summoned the producers of “Bala” to appear before the court today in a plagiarism case.
Chandra, who filed a case in the Bombay High Court and later moved to the Supreme Court, said he hopes to get a stay on “Bala” before its November 7 release.
Claiming that “Bala” is lifted from his script, Chandra said he met Ayushmann during the shooting of ‘Bareilly Ki Barfi’ and in September 2017 sent him the concept via WhatsApp.
According to Chandra, the entire trailer of “Bala” is based on the concept he sent Ayushmann.
The story, he said, is his own biopic and is about how inner beauty is more important than physical appearance.
Filmmaker Naman Goyal also claimed that several scenes and content of “Bala” were lifted from his award-winning short film “The Beginning To Get Bald”.
An appeal was submitted on November 2 against the producers as well as director and writer of the film for copyright violation.
While hearing the plea on Monday, the Jaipur court issued notice to “Bala” producer Maddock Films to appear before the court on November 6, counsel for the petitioner G D Bansal said on Tuesday.
Efforts to contact the producers of “Bala” and Ayushmann were unsuccessful.
Ayushmann had earlier dismissed Chandra’s claims.
