Mumbai: The release of Aamir Khan starrer Ghajini is on hold as of now. Salem A. Chandrasekhar producer of Tamil version of Ghajini filed a petition in the Madras High Court alleging that he had not authorized anyone to remake his film. The rights had been secured with forged documents and the movie remade in Hindi, Telugu and Kannada languages.

At a press event held in Mumbai on 23 December producer of Ghajini Allu Arvind said, "Yes it is true that Madras High Court has passed this order. We are exploring all legal options against the order to facilitate the films release on time. An appeal is to be heard by the vacation bench of Madras High Court and the outcome will be out on 24 December. I cannot comment any further as the matter is sub judice."

Justice P R Sivakumar granted an interim order on the petition filed by producer of the original Tamil version of the film. However it may be difficult to stop the release of the movie because Reliance Big Pictures dispatched the overseas prints of the movie on Monday itself and Studio 18 also dispatched the domestic prints which may have reached the exhibitors.

Elaborating on this current situation a source informs that Chandrasekhar had issued the Telugu dub and Hindi remake in 2005. The source says, "When Chandrasekhar made the Tamil version of Ghajini, the film went drastically over budget and he did not have any money to release the movie. At that time, Allu Arvind bailed him out financially and in return took the Telugu dubbing rights and Hindi remake rights of Ghajini and all necessary documents were signed."

The source further adds, "But since the documents were signed in 2005 and the money was paid that time itself, the amount seems too less to Chandrasekhar now in comparison to that time."

Another dimension to this case is that, since the Tamil version of Ghajini had gone overboard, Chandrasekhar had asked director A.R.Murugadoss to make another movie for him later, but that did not happen, following which the former filed a case on the director.

And during this entire episode, Chandrasekhar was aware of the Hindi version being made because it was constantly in news due to Aamir’s injury, it’s shooting in Hyderabad and moreover the entire crew is also same. So why did Chandrasekhar not raise any objection then and wait until the release?

The source says, "All this time Chandrasekhar did not have any clue about how big the Hindi Ghajini is. Ghajini’s advance bookings indicate the film will be the years biggest and is now he suddenly unhappy about the amount given to him in 2005."

Moreover Tamil Ghajini is also not original and is evidently inspired from an English film Memento. In the film’s Hindi version, it is said the climax of 30 – 40 minutes is entirely different from the Tamil version. So to what extent the copyright act will come into play in this case is also questionable.

Source further adds, "The makers of Hindi Ghajini have very little time as the movie is due for a worldwide release today on Wednesday, 24 Decemebr at 6.00 pm. There is obviously very little time to put forth all these points in front of the judge. Hence they are trying to figure out a mid way by way of which the release is also not stalled and as and when a judgment is passed Chandrasekhar will get his dues if need be."