Arguments in Toilet: Ek Prem Katha copyright case to continue today

A local court on Tuesday, 2 August, continued to hear arguments for the second day in a row in a case of violation of the Copyright Act by makers of Akshay Kumar-starrer Toilet: Ek Prem Katha.

"The arguments continued for the whole day today and tomorrow again it will continue in Jaipur Metropolitan Court," G.D. Bansal, advocate for Jaipur-based filmmaker Pratik Sharma, said.

A copyright infringement case was brought up by Sharma against Plan C Studios, an alliance between Reliance Entertainment and Friday Filmworks helmed by Neeraj Pandey and Shital Bhatia, and Viacom18, on 7 July in a Jaipur Metropolitan Court.

Sharma alleged that the makers have lifted the punchline and the subject from his film Gutrun Gutar Gun.

SS Hora, counsel of Viacom 18 told IANS: "We argued on four major points. First, there can't be copyright of an idea or a concept. Secondly, what he (Sharma) claims is already in public domain, a real life fact in India it is not his creation. Third, he being in the film industry, he knew that the film would come out on this concept on July 2, 2015 and he sat over all this while, and fourth, various stake holders in the film are not before the court, he knows all of them but that he has not made them party is a defect. So, no relief should be given to the plaintiff."

On 26 July, the Jaipur Metropolitan Court asked the makers of the film to file a reply or enter into arguments in the case on 31 July.

Toilet: Ek Prem Katha, directed by Shree Narayan Singh, deals with the need of sanitisation in India and is based on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Swachh Bharat campaign. It features Bhumi Pednekar with Kumar.