New Delhi: Bollywood actor Hrithik Roshan's upcoming movie ‘Mohenjo Daro' has bagged a lot of attention ever since it was announced.
Helmed by Ashutosh Gowariker, the movie is in the last days of shooting.
But it seems that the Ashutosh's periodical drama ‘Mohenjo Daro' has to go through a real tough phase before the film hit the theatres.
While the team of ‘Mohenjo Daro' are busy shooting in Mumbai, filmmaker Akashaditya Lama has claimed that Gowariker has stolen his story.
To all those who don't know about Akashaditya Lama, he is the director of the movie ‘Cigarette Ki Tarah' and has been the writer of popular TV shows Kumkum, Kkusum and Hamari Betiyoon Ka Vivah.
Lama has sent a legal notice to UTV Films and Disney India, director Gowariker and leading man Hrithik Roshan, claiming that the makers have stolen the story of ‘Mohenjo Daro' from him and has even demanded a stay on film's production and release.
While talking to a leading daily, Akashaditya stated that the idea of the story came while he was studying in Gwalior in 1995. Two years later, he moved to Mumbai and assisted Anil Sharma on his '2001 period love story, Gadar: Ek Prem Katha.
Lama revealed that during that time there was hardly any fiction available on Mohenjo Daro and little information about the ancient city apart from a few artifacts found during excavations, including figurines of a dancing girl and a priest king.
It was in 2003 when he shared his script with his friend, editor Ballu (Jaswinder) Saluja, an associate of Ashutosh Gowariker, who then sent the script to Ashutosh for a read.
“I sent him a handwritten script through Saluja which he returned after four days saying that he had just directed a period movie (Lagaan) and didn't wish to make another one immediately ,” said Lama. He later made a play on the script which was a huge success across the country.
While Ashutosh had rejected the script then, Lama was surprised to learn that Gowariker is now working on his script.
He reportedly said, "I was surprised to learn that Gowariker had already commenced his film's pre-production. After re-confirming from several sources that his Mohenjo Daro is very similar to my script, I sent him another mail on July 18, 2014, reminding him about the script I had sent to him in 2002-2003”.
He had registered his script titled Saamrajya under the Copyrights Act with Ministry of Human Resources Development in 2007 as he feared his title and script might get stolen with period dramas in vogue after Lagaan and Gadar.
Infact, Akashaditya even re-registered the same script online in February 2010 with the title Mohenjodaro with the Ministry of Human Resources Development and the Department of Higher Education, Government of India, under the Copyright Act. Two days later, he also registered the same script with the same title with the Film Writers Association, Mumbai.
While the Hrithik Roshan starrer periodic drama is facing legal troubles now, director Ashutosh Gowariker's lawyer was reported saying, “Our client states that they had received a script from Mr Ballu Saluja in 2003. However, our client returned the script to Mr Ballu Saluja immediately without reading the same. Our client denies that your client's script was returned by our client to Mr Ballu Saluja because they were not intending to make a historical film”.
