Vipul Shah wins the plagiarism battle

In a significant development, the single bench of the Kolkata High Court ruled in favour of filmmaker Vipul Shah in a plagiarism case. Shah had filed a case against Shree Venkatesh Films' Mahendra Soni and Shrikant Mohta for allegedly making a copy of his Akshay Kumar-Katrina Kaif starrer Namastey London with their Bengali film, Poran Jaye Joliya Re (PJJR). The film released in Kolkata on July 24 this year.

Poran Jay Joliya Re ran in 115 halls across West Bengal and was the biggest hit of the year in Bengal but now with the ruling all screenings have been stayed. Says a source from Vipul's office, "Documents and equipment (including the reels) will have to be deposited with the censor board until the disposal of the case. It's definitely a big move in terms of plagiarism of films.

In a landmark judgement, after watching both the films, Justice Nadira Patheriya at the single bench of the Kolkata High Court, agreed with Vipul Shah and ruled that the Bengali film was a copy and asked the producers of PJJR to pay compensation. Now Shree Venkatesh Films has appealed to a double bench of the Kolkata High Court. The ruling will take place today."

The source continues, "Vipul was told about the Bengali film by his friends in Kolkata when they happened to read an interview of the director, Ravi Kinagii, in a newspaper where he confessed that his film was similar to Namastey London. Then Shah, too, saw the film and that's when he decided to file the case. Since there has been blatant copying and plagiarising, Vipul wants penalty and compensation. He is waiting for the court's verdict."