As per reports, writer Vipul Rawal, has filed a complaint with the Film Writers Association (FWA) against director Shree Narayan Singh and writers Siddharth and Garima Rawal, alleging copyright infringement and unethical behaviour in relation to the film ‘Batti Gul Meter Chalu’.
Vipul Rawal (writer of Rustom), in his complaint has stated that he had registered the story titled, Roshini, in 2009. He later registered the final draft of the same in 2016. In 2017, he apparently entered into an agreement with KriArj Entertainment, after which the story was narrated to various actors. Eventually, Shahid and Shraddha Kapoor were signed for the film. Vipul Rawal has been reported to state that the director of Batti Gul wanted certain changes in the screenplay and for that, he decided to employ writers of his choice to make the modifications in Vipul’s screenplay. The pre-production started and the dates for shooting were locked. However, when the first teaser came out, Vipul’s name wasn’t mentioned anywhere. Instead, it boldly proclaimed, ‘From the writer and director of Toilet: Ek Prem Katha’. Vipul has stated that he sent multiple emails to the producers who assured him that the issue would be rectified at the earliest.
He claims that he wrote several mails to Shree Narayan Singh, who is also the movie’s line producer, asking him to rectify the credits. He states, “The director’s partner, Nitin Chandrachud, sent me a mail saying that the subject of my film (electricity) is in public domain and anyone can write on it. This, after the entire project, was set up on the basis of the screenplay written by me. They also mentioned that they will mention my credits only as ‘concept by’, which is totally unacceptable to me.”
The shoot of Batti Gul Meter Chalu, starring Shahid Kapoor and Shraddha Kapoor, had run into trouble due to monetary issues earlier and resumed only after Bhushan Kumar took over the reigns from KriArj Entertainment (co-owned by Prernaa Arora and Arjun N Kapoor).
The claim made by writer Vipul Rawal would largely depend on the agreement signed by him with the producers of the film. However, without knowing the details of the arrangement, it would be difficult to comment on the merits of the case.
Image source: here
