'Kites' flies into copyright controversy

Of the many controversies threatening to ground Hrithik Roshan-starrer Kites, this one has leapt right out of a storyboard.

A line-production company had moved a court in Bihar on Thursday alleging that its makers have stolen five of their ‘copyrighted’ action sequences. Though the Sitamarhi court had stayed the film’s release until May 24, the Patna court vacated it on Friday, clearing the decks for its release in Bihar.

In Bangalore, however, the film failed to hit the screens after members of the Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce objected that it was being released in far more theatres than allowed.

The storyboard in question, according to Spectrum Entertainment, is its intellectual property, and has been bought by another production house, Happy Hours.

Advocate Arundathi Walawalkar appearing for Spectrum Entertainment claimed in a press conference held at Marathi Patrakar Sangh on Friday that Spectrum had even shot the action sequences for the film in the US and Canada. “Later, the production company was fired, but with a promise that its copyrighted storyboards will not be used,” said Walawalkar.
Filmcraft, the company that has made Kites, still owes them nearly one million dollars for the shoot, claimed Walawalkar.

The proprietor of Happy Hours, Laxmi Narain, filed a suit under the Copyrights Act in April against Filmcraft, Rakesh Roshan and Reliance Big Cinemas, the distributor.

On Thursday, a Sitamarhi court had passed an order restraining the producers of the film from screening the film all over India. However, a Patna high court gave the green signal for release of the film.

“The film has released. There is no stay order,” said the spokesperson for Kites. Walawalkar, however, said that she is unaware of the order, as the opposite party has not notified them.
Hrithik’s last film, Krazzy 4, also had a tumultuous release, and reached the theatres only after the producers made a Rs2-crore out-of-court settlement with a music composer who had alleged a  song in the film were based on his compositions.