'Slumdog' makers in a spot over quiz answer

Late film lyricist Gopal Singh Nepali’s son has dragged UK-based production house Celador Films — which produced Oscar-winning film Slumdog Millionaire — to court for depriving his father of the credit for the song Darshan Do Ghanshyam.

The suit,  filed last month, came up for hearing before Justice SC Dharmadhikari on Monday. The court refused to grant an ad-interim stay on the screening of the film as the film has already been released. The hearing was adjourned to September 9 and the respondents have been asked to file a reply.

According to suit filed by Nakulsingh Nepali, the song features in the film Narsi Bhagat (1957). But in Slumdog Millionaire, which centers around a quiz show, the sahi jawab of the question on who wrote the hymn pops up as ‘saint Surdas’.

Nakulsingh initially wrote to the makers of the film but failed to get an adequate response from them. He has now demanded damages of Rs 5 crore and correction of the error.

“My client saw the film sometime in February, and was shocked to see that the song was attributed to the wrong person. The producers should either remove the sequence which gives wrong information, or replace it with one having correct answer,” said petitioner’s advocate Anjanikumar Singh.

Singh claimed that the production house had wanted his client to settle the case out of court, but was not willing to remove the sequence in question from the film. “Our case is that it is an infringement of copyrights act,” said advocate Singh.