High Court Issues Notice to Makers of 'PK' for Alleged Plagiarism

A Hindi novelist has approached the Delhi High Court with a plea to restrain the filmmakers of Aamir Khan‘s PK, alleging that the story was plagiarised from his novel released in 2013. 

The Delhi High Court issued a notice yesterday to the producers and directors of Aamir Khan starrer 'PK' on a novelist's plea accusing the makers of the movie of plagiarising certain portions from his Hindi book 'Farishta' published in 2013.

Justice Najmi Waziri asked Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Raj Kumar Hirani, who directed the film, their respective production companies and scriptwriter Abhijat Joshi to appear before the joint registrar of the high court on April 16 for recording of evidence in this regard.

The court's notice came on a plea by Kapil Isapuri alleging that  Mr Chopra and Mr Hirani, directors of the film, their production companies and scriptwriter Abhijat have "stolen the characters, expression of ideas, scenes (sequences) from the novel." He sought punitive damages of rupees one crore from the makers along with credit  for his work.

 

In his plea filed through advocate Jyotika Kalra, Isapuri claimed that in his novel he "has criticised blind following of so-called godmen" as well as that "profession of religion is not natural but is man-made and artificial" and "in a group of people nobody can identify their respective religion". He also claimed that various other issues raised by the movie have been "copied" from his book.

"That the novel has many more such situations which have been very cleverly copied by the defendants in the film by making minor changes and insignificant variations," the petition claimed.