Shahid Kapoor starrer “Jersey” will release on its scheduled date, April 22, after the Bombay High Court refused to stay the release of the movie while hearing a copyright infringement suit against its producers and the actor.
Justice RI Chagla was hearing a suit filed by writer Rajneesh Jaiswal alleging that the producers had plagiarised his script titled “The Wall” which was registered with the Film Writers Association (now the Screenwriters Association) in 2007.
Vishal Kanade, Jaiswal’s advocate, argued that the concept, story and idea from his script had been illegally plagiarised by makers of "Jersey'. He further argued that the Telugu film, which released in 2019, was also based on his script.
Citing that there were several overlaps in his script and the stories of the films, Jaiswal claimed that the movies’ script had been manipulated slightly in order to evade the scanner of plagiarism.
Jaiswal further contended that defendants unjustly enriched themselves while causing him a massive economic loss. The fact that the Telugu language movie is now being adapted and remade in Hindi in itself shows that huge profits have already been made. His plea further claimed that the defendants colluded with each other to cheat and deceive him by obtaining the script from a third party so that they could avoid paying royalties.
Dr Birendra Saraf, counsel for producer Allu Aravind, argued that Jaiswal had not sought damages against the Telugu film, but instead on the subsequent Hindi remake made after two years. He termed Jaiswal’s claim of not being aware of the Telugu film as inconceivable.
Safar argued that the Telugu film was dubbed in Hindi and 10 crore people watched it. Also, it was available in most OTT platforms and also on YouTube. “It is not just made for Telugu speaking people, but across the country, 10 crore people viewing it and with cricket in the theme... It is inconceivable that he has not viewed it,” argued Saraf.
Opposing the suit, Saraf contended that for copyright to take place, it was pertinent to get access to the material that could be copyrighted, which was missing in this case. According to Jaiswal’s claim, the registered script was not shared with anyone else and the association with which it was registered has not shared it with different people either, added Saraf.
