Ayushman Khurran’s ‘Bala’ struck with copyright violation case

Ayushmann Khurrana is apparently in the best phase of his career right now. Last year, he knocked it out of the park with ‘Badhaai Ho’ and ‘Andhadhun’, recently won the National Award for ‘Andhadhun’, gave a stellar performance in ‘Article 15’ and now his latest release ‘Dream Girl’ has opened to crazy numbers and is almost certain to become a hit.

However, the 35-year-old singer turned actor’s upcoming film ‘Bala’ has landed in troubled water.

A case of copyright violation has been filed in Bombay High Court against the writer Niren Bhatt and producer of the film Maddock Films, according to a report in Mumbai Mirror.

Praveen Morchhale is the complainant and alleges the film’s concept has been copied from his script titled ‘Mr. Yogi’.

He told Mumbai Mirror, “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 concluded that ‘Bala’ is very similar to my story and screenplay.”

He further added that he has not met anybody correlated with the film. “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,” the director said.

Maddock Films, however, dismissed the allegations. According to an official statement issued, “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.”

‘Bala’ will narrate the story of a prematurely balding man, played by Khurrana, and a small-town girl (Bhumi Pednekar) battling skin-color prejudices in a society obsessed with fair skin.