Copyright Tussle Between ‘In The Name of God’ And ‘Laddoo’

The controversy between the short films —Laddoo and In The Name Of God — based on a similar storyline continues. One thought the tussle ended after Neeraj Pandey and Shital Bhatia’s Friday Filmworks, which presented the Sameer Sadhwani and Kishore Sadhwani-directed Laddoo, revealed that writer Pankaj Chaturvedi had shared the script with the director duo in 2013. However, due to the time gap and lack of communication between the Sadhwanis and Pankaj, the writer’s credit in Laddoo was unintentionally missed (After Hrs edition dated February 22, 2019).

On February 25, Pankaj sent a legal notice to Ajay Dhama, who reportedly had made In The Name Of God in 2014 and even uploaded clips on his Facebook page. The notice states that Pankaj had shared the subject with Ajay in December 2013. However, since there was no development to their discussions, the idea of jointly producing it was deemed abandoned.

The notice also states that Pankaj was surprised to learn that Ajay had made a film and shared clippings online. Maintaining that he is the sole owner of the script, he assigned the copyright and intellectual property rights to Sameer and Kishore Sadhwani. It is further stated that Ajay has no right or claim over the script and he should remove all material shared on social media and other media platforms. Moreover, he should also hand over all the material related to In The Name Of God to him.

In his reply to the notice, through his lawyers, Ajay questions why Pankaj waited till February 2019 to register for the copyright of the script (vide diary number 1818/2019-CO/L. The notice also maintains that the script of In The Name Of God was conceptualized by Ajay and writer-actor Rakesh Ojha, who also wrote the dialogue for the film. Moreover, it states that Pankaj was an assistant to Rakesh and has misused the facts.

On his part, Pankaj says, “My script was created in December 2013 and subsequently, I got it registered. I had recently applied for copyright just as an additional precautionary measure. All writers abide by getting their scripts registered. The script was shared with Ajay Dhama as he had shown interest in producing it under my direction. We disconnected post that on many things and nothing materialized and noticed recently during the ongoing events and through his claims in media that he has produced the same without my consent. The matter needs to be resolved in the court of law and all the evidence to this will be presented there.”

Both the shorts revolve around the theme that all religions are one and lead to one ultimate Almighty. The story is about a little boy who is sent by his mother with a tiffin for the temple pandit on the occasion of his grandfather’s death anniversary. However, seeing the temple closed, he ends up at a mosque, where he gives the food to the maulvi.