After Sairat, it's court-time for Zhala Bobhata

Last year, writer Navnath Mane filed a copyright infringement case against makers of the superhit Marathi film 'Sairat'. He alleged that Nagraj Manjule's story for the film was lifted from his novel titled 'Bobhata'.
Now, the writer, who goes by the pen name Nath Mane, has again filed a similar case against the makers of 'Zhala Bobhata', which was one of the first two releases of 2017, for copying the title of his novel.
According to Mane, the title 'Bobhata' was registered with the Akhil Bhartiya Marathi Chitrapat Mahamandal (ABMCM) and he was planning to make a movie by the name too. 'When I came to know of the name 'Zhala Bobhata', I raised an objection with ABMCM and, as per procedure, even submitted an official complaint with the organisation on December 9. But nothing came out of it, so I had no other option but to take the legal route,' says Mane. Turns out, he had actually submitted the letter. 'Yes, Mane had written to us, after which, we called both the concerned parties and tried to settle the matter. But he wasn't satisfied and took the matter to court,' informs Meghraj Rajebhosale, president of ABMCM. Rajebhosale further clarifies that in such cases when names clash, the ABMCM suggests the person approaching later, to add a suffix or prefix to the name so that it isn't the same as the one registered. 'On enquiring further, we came to know that Mane registers titles out of the blue and does nothing about it later. So the titles are stuck unnecessarily. There are people like these who bank on petty issues,' says Rajebhosale.
Movie review: Zhala Bobhata
The film, which features Dilip Prabhavalkar, has received a good response from the audience, according to director Anup Jagdale and Mane wants to cash in on the fame, he says. 'He did the same when 'Sairat' released. It is nothing but harassment for the makers. Imagine our plight when just a day before the film hit screens, he appealed for a stay on the release. Thankfully, we got a next date from the court and the film released. Mane is doing all this just for publicity. He says he wanted to make a film with the title 'Bobhata', in the future. Well, he's more than welcome to. We haven't stolen his title at all,' says Jagdale, who now wants to bring this issue at the fore so that 'no one else suffers at the hands of Mane again'.
While the makers and ABMCM are firm on their stand and also have paperwork to back their innocence, Mane is not going to let the matter be. 'I too have proof of objection being raised against the title. All this is a result of internal politics and corruption and I am suffering due to it,' he says.