‘They stole my script for Om Shanti Om’

After actor Manoj Kumar’s legal action against Om Shanti Om (OSO), now a script writer has dragged Shah Rukh Khan, director Farah Khan and others to court for allegedly copying his script. 

Ajay Monga, who has written the scripts of films like Corporate and the forthcoming Fashion, has filed a suit in Bombay High Court, alleging that OSO is a copy of a script he wrote. Alleging copyright infringement, Monga’s suit states that he had wanted Shah Rukh to play the lead role in the film, and gave a copy of the script to his company — Red Chillies Entertainment — in December 2005, but got no response.
Monga’s action may seem belated given that OSO was released in November.

However, he has stated that he filed complaint with the Script Writers’ Association in December itself. He decided to file a suit in the HC on August 2 after learning that the film is slated for a worldwide television release on August 10.

On Wednesday, Monga’s lawyer, Virendra Tulzapurkar, sought an ad-interim relief from the HC to stop the telecast of the film on Sony Television on August 10. He said that his client had filed his objections with Multi Screen Media (formerly SET India), which had acquired satellite telecast rights of OSO. “When my client realised that in spite of his  objection, they are going ahead with the television release, he approached the HC.” He also pointed out that the satellite release of the film amounted to a fresh act of piracy and infringement of his client’s copyright.

Justice VM Kanade did not pass any order on the plea to stop the telecast of the film, but directed all parties to file their replies to the suit within four weeks.

According to Monga’s suit, his script was intended to be produced as a silent film. It told the story of a junior film artiste falling in love with a superstar, saving her life, being shattered at discovering that she is already engaged to another actor and finally, winning her over in the end.

When he saw OSO after its release, he was “deeply shocked to know that the film was produced by copying and using his script”. He has alleged that the story, screenplay, plots and the sequence of events in the first half of OSO were “almost identical to his script” and has accused the defendants of infringing his copyright and using his script “dishonestly in breach of confidence and trust”.

The defendants have denied the allegations. They pointed out that the Screen Writers’ Association dismissed Monga’s complaint, stating that it found no  similarity between his script and OSO.