MUMBAI: Producer Vashu Bhagnani has sent a legal notice to the makers of Batti Gul Meter Chalu and Fanney Khan as his name as producer and distributor was missing from the credits.
Bhagnani of Pooja Entertainment and Films has claimed his rights on the films via a public notice issued in Mumbai.
He has named Prernaa Arora of KriArj Entertainment, T-Series head honcho Bhushan Kumar and producer Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra in the legal notice.
“Yes, I have sent legal notices to Bhushan, Prernaa and Rakeysh on Monday claiming the rights to these films,” Bhagnani said in a statement.
“For Fanney Khan, I have the all-India distribution rights and I am entitled to producer’s credit, while in Batti Gul Meter Chalu, I have the producer title and a commitment of the all-India distribution of the film. I have documents supporting my claims, except for the distribution agreement of Batti Gul Meter Chalu, which Prernaa had promised me would be made once the film goes on the floors but that didn’t happen,” he added.
The notice claims that Bhagnani had entered into an agreement with Arora to acquire the rights for both the films. He is now wondering “how they could take over the projects when I have all the documents stating that I have the rights to them.”
Ankit Relan from the legal team of T-Series said the number of people claiming parallel rights in these films is “quite astonishing.”
He said in a statement that T-Series filed a suit last month before the Delhi High Court against Kriarj, Gothic Entertainment, Ease My Trip and other such entities.
“After considering all the materials on record, the court had issued an order in T-Series’ favour observing that Kriarj did not have the right to grant any third party rights or create any lien over the film without taking the written consent of T-Series who was jointly producing the film Batti Gul Meter Chalu with Kriarj,” Relan said.
Batti Gul Meter Chalu is a social comedy-drama starring Shahid Kapoor, while Fanney Khan, which stars Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Anil Kapoor and Rajkummar Rao, is the Hindi adaptation of the Dutch film Everybody’s Famous.
