National Award winner accuses Ayushmann\'s \'Bala\' writer of copyright; details inside

Mumbai: Today is Ayushmann Khurrana's 35th birthday and the actor is celebrating his latest release Dream Girl big opening day success with family and friends. However, the actor's upcoming film, Bala has trapped in a legal case.

Recently, National Award-winning director Praveen Mochale has reportedly filed a case in the Bombay High Court accusing writer Niren Bhatt and Bala producer Maddock Films alleging they lifted the story from his screenplay. Well, this is the second case of plagiarism against the film.

A Mumbai Mirror report claimed that Praveen filed a case under the Copyright Act 1957, alleging that Bala’s story sounds similar to his screenplay that he has narrated to several people in the industry. Praveen told the tabloid, "I read a news article on Bala being a satirical comedy about premature balding, which was an idea I had conceived in 2005. I worked on it for two years and registered the story with the Film Writers’ Association (FWA) in 2007. After compiling information from various sources, I have arrived at the conclusion that Bala is very similar to my story and screenplay."

Praveen also admitted that he has not met anyone associated with Bala. "But the case isn’t about meeting or narrating the film to them. I’ve met hundreds of people and narrated my story to them, anyone could have put the idea in their minds. Since I have registered my concept and script, I can narrate it to as many people as I want, nobody can copy it,” he added.

The three-time National award winner also said that the title of his script was Mr Yogi which very similar to Bala. However, on the other hand, Maddock Films claimed that they had no information about the case filed against them. "Maddock is not aware of any case being filed against it by Mr Morchhale and denies that he has anything to do with its film Bala. Nobody from Maddock has ever met with Mr Morchhale or is even aware of him being associated with a story of a bald man,” the daily quoted an official statement.

Earlier in March 2019, Shaadi Mein Zaroor Aana assistant director Kamal Kant Chandra had lodged a case in the Bombay High Court against Ayushmann, director Amar and producer Dinesh Vijan for lifting the idea from his project Wig.

Meanwhile, Bala also stars Yami Gautam and Bhumi Pednekar in lead roles. The film is slated to release on November 22, 2019.