Kamal Kant Chandra files new police complaint against ‘Bala’ for plagiarism

After Kamal Kant Chandra filed a case against Ayushmann Khurrana, director Amar Kaushik and producer Dinesh Vijan, for taking the central plot from a script he originally penned for his project ‘Wig’, it has now emerged Chandra has lodged another criminal complaint.

Reported on Mid-day, the new complaint has been filed under Section 420 (cheating) and Section 406 (breech of trust), after Chandra found out the makers of ‘Bala’ have started shooting for the film. The lawyers representing the trio, told Bombay High Court back in April that the film was only in script stages.

Chandra has hit back and said it’s wrong that shooting has commenced, as the initial court case has yet to conclude its verdict. “It’s wrong to start shooting before the court has given its verdict. At the last hearing, they said that they would take time to develop the script. How did they start shooting in 15 days? This means they gave a misleading picture to the court. I approached the vacation bench four days ago, but they stated that I should wait for the next hearing on June 10. But the makers might finish [a chunk of] the film by then and argue that since a lot of money is at stake, the court should rule in their favour,” says Chandra.

Chandra adds he still has the WhatsApp conversations between him and Khurrana dating back to 2017, when the latter expressed his interest in the film. “I registered my concept with Screen Writers’ Association in 2016 while their script has been registered in 2018.”

In response to the allegations, Khurrana’s legal team have claimed the facts have been distorted. “What has been communicated to you is a mala fide distortion of facts, specially with regard to the proceedings of April 9. Since the matter is sub-judice, we are not commenting any further. Our script is original, and we will show that to the court when the matter comes up.”

A spokesperson from Maddox Films added, “The court has neither granted relief to the plaintiff nor passed any order restraining us from going ahead with the movie.”