Producer Boney Kapoor has been acquitted in a plagiarism case regarding the Salman Khan film, Wanted. The case was filed in 2010 by petitioner Birbal Singh Rana, a Meerut-based writer-director. Rana had alleged that the script for his film Raja Bhai IPS was plagiarised and used in Wanted. Subsequently, a local court in Meerut had booked Kapoor, Sridevi, director Prabhudeva, and Salman Khan on copyright infringement and plagiarism charges.
Earlier this week, Kapoor was acquitted of all charges by the Allahabad High Court.
In an interview with Mumbai Mirror, Kapoor said, “I have legally bought the rights to and remade 16 films. In the case of Wanted, I not only bought the rights from Prabhudheva who had directed the Tamil version, and eventually the Hindi remake, but also from Puri Jagannadh, who was the original creator and producer of the 2006-Telugu film, Pokiri. I was shocked when I got the first summons, more so when the lower court in Meerut accused us of copyright infringement without proper verification of the script. The petitioner then started harassing and blackmailing us, trying to extort money for no fault of ours.”
Kapoor plans to begin production on the sequel to Wanted soon. Reports indicate that Salman Khan is already on board the project.
Feature Image Courtesy: NDTV