Amitabh's Shoebite in trouble

This is one war that can put any of the corporate wars to shame. We are talking about the on gong war of the two leading giants of the Bollywood fraternity: Percept and UTV. For starters, sometime back Percept Picture Company had announced a film starring the Cheeni Kum pair of Amitabh Bachhan and Tabu. This film that was titled as Johnny Walker was supposed to be directed by Shoojit Sircar. Due to some reasons unknown, the film never saw the light of the day, even though the initial announcement was made.

Reportedly, Sircar then approached UTV with the same subject and had renamed it Shoebite, which is currently being filmed under UTV's production. This action of Sircar angered the Percept officials to no end, since the film belonged to them officially. That's the reason which prompted Shailendra Singh of Percept to approach the Delhi High Court, which gave away its decision to a long battle between both the production houses. The court's decision went in favour of Shailendra Singh, who has won the case.

Copy of the Court's order

"Percept approached the Delhi High Court to protect their intellectual property in the script Johny Walker which is registered. Counsel Mr. Rajiv Nayyar instructed by Ameet Naik of Naik, Naik and Company and Rishi Agarwal appeared for Percept. The Delhi High Court was prima facie convinced that Shoojit Sircar disregarded the terms of his engagement with Percept and is making the Amitabh Bachchan starrer film Shoebite with UTV, based on Percept's script. The Delhi high court observed that since UTV and Shoojit Sircar have encroached upon Percept's copyright in the script Johny Walker, on 16th July, 2008 the court has granted injunction restraining them from infringing Percept's copyright in the script and dialogue of the film Johny Walker in any manner including by making the film Shoebite based on the script".