When celebs ran into legal trouble

Both the films 'Batti Gul Meter Chalu' and 'Fanney Khan' are much-awaited films of this year. But over a few months, the films have faced several issues due to which the shooting of the movies have also been delayed. On Tuesday, the Delhi High Court had restrained Vashu Bhagnani’s Pooja Film Company and Pooja Entertainment & Films Ltd from interfering with the distribution and release of 'Batti Gul Meter Chalu' and 'Fanney Khan'.

According to reports, T-Series had earlier filed a case against Bhagnani claiming that he was interfering with the distribution and release of both the movies. According to them, he had issued baseless public notices asking the film distributors and theater owners to not sign any agreements to release the two movies.

In the court, the lawyers of T-Series said that they had sent many replies to Bhagnani’s legal team asking them to provide with the agreements under which they have the rights of both the films. The lawyers even claimed that instead of replying to the requests the Bhagnani’s team kept on sending notices to the distributors to not hold any deal with T-Series. The lawyers claimed that this unlawful interference has resulted in a big loss to the company.

Considering the fact that there are many third party investors in these films, the court directed to take up the matter next week and even restrained Vashu Bhagnani's production house to interfere in any matter of both the movies.

But when a tabloid contacted Vashu Bhagnani for the same he said that he did not receive any notices about the same. He further said that he had filed a case against the production houses and the case will be heard by Justice Kathawalla in the Bombay High Court on Friday.

He further said that he had filed the rights of two films with KriArj Entertainment last December. He added that he had no clue about the involvement of T-Series and Anil Kapoor Film and Communication, in both the film.

Both ‘Fanney Khan’ and ‘Batti Gul Meter Chalu’ have been facing turmoil and incessant indifferences and legal troubles with the producers. The movies came under the scanner due to the legal spat between the co-producers. However, now as per latest reports, the Delhi High Court has restrained noted film producer Vashu Bhagnani owned Pooja Film Company and Pooja Entertainment & Films Ltd. from interfering with the distribution and release of the films ‘Fanney Khan’ and ‘Batti Gul Meter Chalu’, both of which are scheduled for release next month and are being co-produced by T-series.

‘Fanney Khan’ starring Anil Kaporo, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Rajkummar Rao and ‘Batti Gul Meter Chalu’ starring Shahid Kapoor, Shraddha Kapoor and Yami Gautam, both have created immense buzz since their inception. However, these controversies fetched them only negative publicity amongst the fans.

The Delhi High Court was hearing a suit filed by T-Series, claiming that Vashu Bhagnani was interfering in the release and distribution of these films by issuing baseless public notices asking various theatre owners and film distributors in the country to not enter into any agreements to release these films. It was also reported that Vashu Bhagnani had apparently also served legal notices to Bhushan Kumar’s T-series, Prernaa Arora’s KriArj Entertainment and Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s production house last month claiming to have acquired rights in these films from KriArj last year itself.

The lawyers representing T-series also reportedly stated in court that they had sent multiple replies to Vashu’s legal team last month, asking them to provide a copy of these alleged agreements, where he claimed to have got the rights. However, instead of responding to the requests, Vashu’s team chose to issue public notices and ask the film distributors across the country to not execute any deals with T-series or film’s producers. The lawyers argued that this led to an unlawful interference with the film by Vashu Bhaganani and was creating tremendous uncertainty and suspicion over T-series’ rights in these films, which was uncalled for and leading to severe losses.

When contacted, Advocate Neel Mason of Mason & Associates, who appeared for T-Series said that “Our case is quite simple. T-series co-produced ‘Batti Gul Meter Chalu’ with KriArj and ‘Fanney Khan’ with KriArj and Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra Productions, under written agreements, all of which were executed much prior in time than Vashu Bhagnani’s alleged agreements. These agreements prohibited KriArj from entering into any agreements with any third party without the written consent of T-series. Therefore, any agreement that KriArj may have entered into with Vashu ji’s companies, are void in law and cannot supersede our client’s rights. As regards why, when and where did KriArj execute these so-called agreements with Vashu ji or what happened with the money paid to KriArj is for KriArj to explain. Our Client cannot be made to suffer if KriArj has exceeded its rights and taken money from someone, without our client’s written consent.”

Considering that such matters suddenly saw daylight in the court which involved claims made by multiple third party investors in these films, the Delhi High Court directed the matters to be taken up together next week. In the meanwhile the Honourable court restrained Pooja Films and Pooja Entertainment & Films Ltd. from issuing any notice or making any claims in relation to these films.

Salman Khan’s lavish farmhouse in Panvel was faced with an environmental audit recently. Reportedly, the Maharashtra forest department had served a show-cause notice to the star’s family over alleged constructions on his farmhouse at Panvel. Reports add that the Khan family owned Arpita Farms is in Wajapur which was declared as an eco-sensitive zone in 2003 which restricts constructions. But 9 constructions on the property were found out to be raised after that.

Reportedly, an offence was registered for violating the Forest Act for cement/concrete construction on Arpita Farms. Apparently, within 11 days after the notice issued to Salman Khan’s family, the forest officer who issued the notice, SS Kapse was shifted out of his jurisdiction at Wajapur. Kapse is reportedly challenging the transfer and has sent a representation to the forest department to revoke the transfer orders.

According to reports, some forest department officials confirmed that the constructions were regularized through an order by the Maharashtra government on April 3, 2017. Salman’s father Salim Khan reacted to this development by saying that it’s only an allegation and the family will speak at the right time as they have nothing more to say right now.

John Abraham’s legal spat with the co-producer of his upcoming movie ‘Parmanu: The Story of Pokhran’, Prernaa Arora had been going on since a long time. After a long struggle and unending court hearings, the issue has been finally resolved, after John Abraham took the matter in his own hands. As per reports, last week, the Bombay High Court ruled in favour of Abraham's banner, ceasing Arora's association with the film.

The legal troubles around the film made its release get stalled incessantly. However, the verdict has now enabled the movie to finally hit the theatres on May 25th. While such issues usually get highlighted among the industry members, surprisingly no one from the Hindi film scenario came in support of John Abraham or even spoke about it.

While interacting with a daily, John revealed how despite several filmmakers running into trouble with Prernaa, he failed to find any support from his friends from the Bollywood industry. He further added that neither anyone came out in support of him, nor did he expect anyone to voice out their opinion on this issue. He emphasised on the fact how people were thanking their cards that they aren’t facing such an issue themselves. He professed that he has cleaned up the mess for a lot of people and concluded by saying that it was all because he had the guts to stand up for what is right, credible and honest.