MUMBAI: The legal battle involving Amit Mehra’s ‘Zanjeer’ (a remake to the 1970’s film) has finally been resolved, Wednesday.
The Bombay High Court has granted permission to Adai Mehra Productions Pvt. Ltd. (AMPL) to produce and release the remake of the 1970 Amitabh Bachchan starrer. Justice RD Dhanuka set aside the order passed by a sole arbitrator restraining Adai Mehra from remaking the film.
Background: The legal tussle began between filmmaker Prakash Mehra’s three sons – Amit Mehra, Sumeet Mehra and Puneet Mehra. Adai Mehra productions Pvt Ltd (AMPL), owned by Amit Mehra, had acquired the rights of remake ‘Zanjeer’ in Hindi and Telegu from Prakash Mehra Productions (PMP), in which the three Mehra brothers are the owners. PMP claimed to be the owner of all rights of ‘Zanjeer’.
Moreover, Once the shooting of the remake film began, screen scribes Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar made a claim that they were the owners of the copyright of the script and literary work of the original ‘Zanjeer’. AMPL thus asked PMP to clear the title issue and stopped making payments. PMP in turn, terminated the agreement granting AMPL the remake rights. The matter between Prakash Mehra productions and his son’s firm, was referred for arbitration and the sole arbitrator on July 16, 2012, in an interim order restrained AMPL from continuing with the production and publicity of the new remake film, ‘Zanjeer’.
Justice Dhanuka has ordered AMPL to make the deposits and pay the remaining installments to PMP within eight weeks. The total amount that was to be paid was Rs 4.10 crores. As per the Bombay High Court order, AMPL now needs to clear the remaining dues of Rs 1.18 crores for the movie to be released.
