Legal troubles for The Legend of Maula Jutt continue. The film-makers have been issued contempt of court notices.
The issue of copyrights is being brought up after the film has been shot and the trailer released? Not really.
Details about the case
Informed sources say that a case between the movie was already pending at the Intellectual Property Organisation of Pakistan (IPO-Pakistan) but Bilal Lashari and team, the folks behind the reboot, still released a trailer.
Sarwar Bhatti, the producer behind the original Maula Jatt (1979) has alleged that the reboot of the Punjabi classic, violates copyrights of the original.
Based on the fact that Sarwar Bhatti filed a lawsuit before the Intellectual Property Organisation of Pakistan (IPO-Pakistan) tribunal in 2017, it seems Lashari did not purchase the copyrights. The lawsuit requested an injunction to prevent the film from being screened.
Lashari on the other hand claimed that Maula Jutt was not a registered trademark and that no one owns the rights.
Barred from Using Elements of the original movie
Muttaqi is saying that the tribunal had restrained Lashari and producers from using the title, characters and dialogues from the original film.
The case was still pending. Earlier this month Sarwar’s lawyer Hassan Niazi tweeted out that they had a restraining order. Therefore, the film-makers could not release the trailer.
Consequently, the IPO tribunal issued contempt notices to producer Ammara Hikmat, director Bilal Lashari, writer Nasir Adeeb, the star cast of the new film, the information secretary and chairmen of all censor boards on Friday.
“I sent warning notices to everyone associated with the film, including the lead actors, to distance themselves from the project since it was under trial, but none of them listened.”
Son of film-maker Sarwar Bhatti, Muttaqi Sarwar stated that the director of the reboot Bilal Lashari has not purchased the copyrights to produce a reboot of the cult classic.
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Co-Production was an option
He revealed that Lashari had even been given the option of co-producing the reboot as an alternative to purchasing copyrights.
“Right after the release of Waar, director Bilal Lashari announced that he was going to make The Legend of Maula Jatt, and my father, who had made Maula Jatt, told him that since we owned the trademark and the intellectual copyright, Lashari cannot use it without purchasing the rights from us. The other option was to co-produce.”
Sarwar and his legal counsel have also filed a case before the Federal Investigation Agency against the film team. An inquiry is ongoing in that case.
Sarwar also believes that making reboot to showcase respect for classic is actually a lack of respect, given the disregard for copyrights.
“People must understand that intellectual copyrights are as important as property rights. And in foreign countries if stars can be awarded punishments the same should be done in our country. They should not be above the law.”
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