Hyderabad based short filmmaker to take 'Jhund' to court for copyright violation

Hyderabad-based filmmaker Nandi Chinni Kumar has sent legal notices to the makers of '

Jhund

' and superstar Amitabh Bachchan who is the lead actor of the movie, over alleged copyright infringement.

Kumar who is a Telugu short-film maker has sent the legal notices in the first week of October to eight persons including director Nagraj Manjule, Amitabh Bachcha, producer Krishan Kumar and Bhushan Kumar. The notice has been also sent to Akhilesh Paul and Vijay Barse who are the founders of NGO Slum Soccer and on whose life the film is based.


Reportedly the filmmaker wanted to make a biopic titled 'Slum Soccer' on Paul, a slum soccer player who was the Indian captain at the 'Homeless World Cup'. He claimed that, in 2017, he bought the exclusive copyrights from Paul under 'Life Story Rights Agreement'.

In the film, Big B will be seen essaying the role of Vijay Barse, a Nagpur-based retired sports teacher who starts a slum soccer movement.
Nandi also mentioned that Paul had also signed a 'No Objection Certificate', declaring that the director is the authorised person for exclusive rights for making the biopic in any language and it was not given to anyone else.

Furthermore, Kumar mentioned, he had sent several emails to 'Jhund' producers but they never reverted. He further alleged that the film's producers indulged in deceit and cheating and thus delayed his project by threat and criminal intimidation over the phone. The legal notice also accused 'Jhund' producers of colluding and conspiring and committing infringement of copyrights and indulging in the making of the film.

"You addressees infringed copyrights of our client, and not only violated his copyrights, but also damaged our client's prospects of making the film 'Slum soccer'," the legal notice read.

Kumar said he also sent e-mails to Bachchan in the last week of September.