Petition filed seeking injunction to Bachchan-starrer Jhund on OTT platforms

Hyderabad: A Hyderabad-based independent filmmaker has filed a suit against makers of Amitabh Bachchan-starrer Jhund, seeking an injunction of the film to be released in theatres and (Over the Top) OTT platforms.

Amid Covid-19 lockdown reports came out that Jhund movie rights were sold to OTT platforms for release, but there is no official confirmation yet. Hyderabad-based filmmaker Nandi Chinni Kumar, who alleged that the makers of Jhund, director Nagrajmanjule and producer Bhushan Kumar and other co-producers, have lifted the content on which he had copyrights.

Apart from that, the suit filed by Nandi also seeks injunction against Amazon Prime and Netflix considering that the films will be mostly released there.

Nandi, speaking to NewsMeter said, “The copyright infringement is currently in court, but still they are going ahead with production and releasing the movie on OTT platforms. Despite legal notices and repeated reminders, yet the makers of Jhund got into deliberate infringement of my copyrights and the statutory rights as well.”

The petition seeking injunction has been filed in District Court of Rangareddy. Nandi had sent legal notices to makers of Jhund in November, 2019. The case is still in the court.

Nandi had bought rights from Akilesh Paul, a slum soccer player for his story, while Jhund director, Nagaraj Majule, bought rights from Akilesh’s coach Vijay Barse, but reportedly the story seems to be covering Akilesh’s life story majorly, thus leading to a copyright infringement.

Nandi said that he has written the screen story and screenplay with the title “Slum Soccer” and registered the same with Telangana Cinema Writers Association. Nandi has written and directed several short-films.