The Mehra brothers, producers Sumeet and Punit can now heave a sigh of relief as their upcoming film, the remake of 1973-cult hit Zanjeer has received the court's green signal for its release this Friday.
The Bombay High Court has thrown out the case against them filed by veteran writer duo, Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar who had claimed the remake rights of the film as their own. The duo had also demanded R 6 crore as compensation.
On behalf of the Mehra brothers, their lawyer, Jayendra Kapadia, states, `The court has come to the conclusion that Salim-Javed had approached the court with an incorrect case. No documents have been produced in support of the case.
The court has come to a prima facie conclusion that Shri Prakash Mehra was the owner of all the copyrights of the film Zanjeer and therefore as stated earlier Salim-Javed are not entitled to any mandatory injunction.`
An ecstatic Punit Mehra says, `Zanjeer was the film from where my father (Prakash Mehra) began. It is a landmark decision for us and for all producers. I have never seen or heard a case where writers claim that remake rights belong to them instead of the producers.` Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar remained unavailable for comment.
