Mountain Man film in trouble

Filmmaker Ketan Mehta has been served legal notice by Sanjay Singh, who is producing a biopic based on the life of Dashrath Manjhi, to be directed by Manish Jha. Manjhi was also known as the Mountain Man, courtesy his feat of single-handedly carving a 360-foot-long,25-foot-high and 30-foot-wide road through a mountain in Gahlour village in Bihar.
While Mehta seems to have turned a blind eye to Singh’s notice, allegedly, Jha’s assistant Mahendra Jakhar is the one to have leaked Jha’s script to Mehta,who is already shooting his own film.Jhaand Singh are terribly angry and upset and have slapped notice on Mehta.
Jha told Mirror, “It helps to have a creative associate as a bouncing board but little did I know mine would create such a big problem in my life. Now, I have no option but to take legal recourse. Dasrath Manjhi is a real life inspirational story. I had registered the script and the screenplay with the Copyright Board of India 2010 and also have email correspondence dated July 1, 2010 with Mahendra to show I had sent him the script for feedback and ideation. Surely, we didn’t deserve this.”
He added, “The combination of writer Abhijat Joshi and director Rajkumar Hirani etc. are rare examples of implicit trust and creative excellence that brought wonderful cinema to our screens. We need more such people in our industry, and it is a shame that one person Mahendra is giving a bad name to the whole clan of writers. I will never be able to trust writers now. This kind of deceit is reprehensible. It is sad because all directors need good writers who can be trusted.”
Apparently, producer Singh gave an amount of Rs 25,000 to Manjhi’s son and took the family’s permission for their screen adaptation. Manjhi’s family was even told they would get a 5 per cent stake in the film’s profits. Singh and Jha never expectedthiskindoftwistinthetalewhere Jakhar would go around brandishing the script as his own, finally selling it to Mehta.
Said Singh, “We are filing a criminal case against Mahender so that he doesn't get away with this act of treachery. We will also file a stay order in the lower court on production of Mehta’s film until this matter is resolved.”
When contacted, Mahender said, “If Sanjay and Manish can prove their claims, I am ready to give my script of Dashrath Manjhi’s life to them. They are lying. I have been working with Ketan on this film since two years. Manish Jha had disappeared since the longest time. I never worked with him as a creative associate. Ketan and I have full permission from Manjhi’s son on our film and we know we are doing no wrong.”
Ketan Mehta remained unavailable for comment.