Prakash Jha served a notice worth Rs 1 crore over Jai Gangaajal sequel rights
Mumbai: In a fresh turn of events, filmmaker Prakash Jha has been served a notice worth Rs 1 crore to his production house, alleging that the film ‘Jai Gangaajal’ was made sans sequel rights.
Phantom Films, a joint movie production house owned by Vikas Bahl, Anurag Kashyap, Vikramaditya Motwane and Madhu Mantena, claims it has the IPR (Intellectual Property Rights) of the 2003 release ‘Gangaajal’, directed and produced by Jha, and the rights to make a sequel or any adaptation based on the original film.
The notice, issued on August 6, claimed that Prakash Jha Productions (PJP) had made a sequel of ‘Gangaajal’ without having the legal rights to do so.
"As the film is made already and intellectual property rights are violated, Jha should provide Rs 1 crore to Phantom film as compensation," the notice stated.
It added that if Jha fails to pay the compensation within 7 days, than Phantom will go to court against the director and PJP over the issue.
Phantom, in its notice also stated that Jha has already taken money for the rights of the film ‘Gangaajal’ and ‘Jai Gangaajal’ (from Phantom), and thus, does not hold the authority to make a sequel.
The notice was issued after Play Entertainment (co- producer of 'Jai Gangaajal') had recently given an advertisement in a trade magazine, regarding the rights of 'Gangaajal'.
The advertisement mentioned that if nobody turns up to claims of the rights of ‘Jai Gangaajal’, then it will be assumed that the rights will be protected by Play Entertainment.
Recently, Play Entertainment, co-producer of the Priyanka Chopra-starrer ‘Jai Gangaajal’ had filed a police complaint against its director Prakash Jha's production company, alleging fraud and cheating.
Reacting to the notice issued, Prakash Jha Productions CEO Sunil Agrawal said the entire world associates Jha to the 2003 release ‘Gangaajal’ and that the movie ‘Jai Gangaajal’ is ‘not’ a sequel to the earlier movie.
"'Gangaajal' was a creation of Prakash Jha. And besides, this (‘Jai Gangaajal’) movie is not a sequel to the earlier movie. It is independent by itself. There is no similarity between both movies so where is the question of violating IPR?" he questioned.
He added that if allegations against PJP were true, the complainant could have gone to court and stalled the release of ‘Jai Gangaajal’.
"But they didn't do so as they had no substance in their allegations. They are only trying to grab advantage of Jha's status," he asserted.
