Journalist-turned-filmmaker Amitabh Parashar has sent a legal notice to T-series, accusing the production house of stealing the idea of his script for its new film "Khandaani Shafakhana", starring Sonakshi Sinha and Anu Kapoor. In his notice, sent through his advocate, Parashar said he approached T-Series last year with the idea of a film based on streetside sex shops and subsequently mailed a soft copy of his script for which he received an acknowledgment.
Bhushan Kumar of T-Series has rubbished the allegation. "It's totally false as what film we are making is totally different. No similarity at all. I don't know how and why, without knowing our film, he is claiming that," Kumar told PTI. According to Parashar, he developed the idea of a comedy film, titled "Bhag Mohabbat", which revolves around the world of street sex doctors, following his feature length documentary "Death of a Sex Doctor" which he had made after extensive, four-year research on roadside sex shops.
Parashar, who won the National Film Award for his documentary "The Eyes of Darkness, said he got his script registered with the Screen Writer's Association, Mumbai. The journalist claimed he met T-series' Mukesh Desai to discuss a feature film on the subject and was sent to meet Anjali Bhushan of the same company. He said he narrated the story in brief to Bhushan.
Parashar, who had hoped to direct the film based on his story, claimed in his notice that he even discussed the possible star cast and suggested the names of Kapoor and Ayushmann Khuranna. He said he mailed a soft copy of his script to T-series in March 2018 and received an acknowledgment. He was also assured that they were considering his script.
In January this year, Parashar said he read in a newspaper that the company had greenlit a film which had uncanny similarity to his script. They had, however, changed the title from "Bhag Mohabbat" to "Khandani Shafkhana", he claimed.
Parashar said he had a producer interested in the story but with the announcement of the T-Series film, he can no longer go ahead with the story, suffering a huge loss. He has demanded damages to the tune of Rs 5 crore from the banner.
(With PTI inputs)
