Case filed against writers, director of Shahid Kapoor-Shraddha Kapoor's Batti Gul Meter Chalu

The shoot of Batti Gul Meter Chalu (BGMC), starring Shahid Kapoor and Shraddha Kapoor, resumed after Bhushan Kumar took over the reigns from KriArj Entertainment (co-owned by Prernaa Arora and Arjun N Kapoor) due to monetary issues. However, it seems like the troubles for the film haven’t ended yet. Vipul Rawal, the writer of Rustom, has filed a complaint with the Film Writers Association (FWA) against director Shree Narayan Singh and writers Siddharth and Garima Rawal (the team behind BGMC). He has charged them with copyright infringement and unethical behaviour.

Vipul in his complaint has stated that he had registered the story titled, Roshini, in 2009. He later registered the final draft of the same in 2016. In 2017, he apparently entered into an agreement with KriArj Entertainment, after which the story was narrated to various actors. Eventually, Shahid and Shraddha were signed for the film. He further states, “The director wanted certain changes in the screenplay and for that, he decided to employ writers of his choice to make the modifications in my screenplay. The pre-production started and the dates for shooting were locked.” 

Vipul says, “However, when the first teaser came out, my name wasn’t mentioned anywhere. Instead, it boldly proclaimed, ‘From the writer and director of Toilet: Ek Prem Katha’. Immediately, I sent multiple mails to the producers, who assured me that the issue will be rectified at the earliest.’’

He claims that he wrote several mails to Shree Narayan Singh, who is also the movie’s line producer, asking him to rectify the credits. He states, “The director’s partner, Nitin Chandrachud, sent me a mail saying that the subject of my film (electricity) is in public domain and anyone can write on it. This, after the entire project, was set up on the basis of the screenplay written by me. They also mentioned that they will mention my credits only as ‘concept by’, which is totally unacceptable to me.”

When contacted, Rohini Vakil, the writer’s lawyer, said, “We have sent a legal notice to them and a public notice will also be published on Saturday. I want my client’s right to be protected. Batti Gul Meter Chalu is from the writer of Rustom and not Toilet Ek Prem Katha as claimed in the teaser.”