Are you aware that ‘Mohenjo Daro’ was in a legal mess? Yes, Akashaditya Lama, a scriptwriter from Mumbai filed a petition in the court stating that the movie is plagiarized.
Moreover, he appealed for a stay on Mohenjo Daro’s release. On 8th August 2016, a Division Bench (Bombay High Court) heard this appeal. Poor Akshaditya; instead of getting any relief from the court, which he expected, he had to bear the brunt Rs 1.5 lakhs, can you believe it?
Yes, Justice Gautam Patel ordered him to pay Rs 1.5 lakhs i.e. the petition cost. Although Lama filed an appeal requesting the cancellation of this order, the court didn’t accept.
As per reports, Lama, the director of ‘Cigarette Ki Tarah’ stated that he had already narrated this film’s story to Ashutosh when he had just shifted to Mumbai for searching work in B-Town. Reports say that in 2012, when Akashaditya came to know that Ashutosh’s movie is going to be based on Indus Valley Civilization, he got a slight hint and hence sent an email to him, but didn’t receive any sort of reply.
Now his petition was disposed off by the court and the movie got a go ahead for release. The court said that Lama’s claims were “an entirely false suit based on suppression, speculation, contradiction..”
Justice Gautam Patel noticed that Akashaditya had just gone to different sites and forums for harassing Gowariker and others associated with the movie. Even Ashutosh’s arguments about the amount of research involved in the movie, were heard.
Secondly, Lama faced problems since he delayed the complaint. Reports say a case was filed in the year 2015 itself, but Lama pulled it back in the month of July 2016, since he wanted to file a fresh petition. However, till June 2016, i.e. 1 month before the release of ‘Mohenjo Daro’, he didn’t file the case.
This couldn’t be accepted by the court since Lama didn’t have any hard core proofs for supporting the allegations.
On the other hand, a spokesperson of Ashutosh Gowariker released a press statement which read
“Ashutosh had faith in the legal system and rather than talking about this, he has been engrossed in promoting the film and I’m sure that that is what he will continue to do. Everyone is fully geared up for 12th August and also the Locarno International Film Festival.”
So guys what do you feel about this? Isn’t it a perfect lesson to the ones who just want to create unnecessary troubles? Do let us know your comments in our comments section below.