After being embroiled in a legal dispute on the copyright of 1973 blockbuster Zanjeer, script writers Salim Khan and Javed Akthar on Wednesday arrived at a financial settlement with the producers, paving way for release of the remake of the movie this Friday.
Salim and Javed had filed a suit in the Bombay high court in July claiming they had copyrights over the script, story and dialogues of the blockbuster, produced by Prakash Mehra.
The duo demanded `six crore as monetary compensation from Mehra’s kin for remaking the film. Prakash Mehra’s son Sumeet Mehra is producing the remake of Zanjeer.
Salim and Javed contented they had the copyrights on the script of the original film and they had allowed Prakash Mehra to produce the film based on their script just once. Hence, a remake could not be produced without their consent.
A single judge of the high court on September 2 refused to grant interim relief to the writers by staying the release of the film following which they appealed before a division bench.
During the hearing today, a division bench of Justices D.Y. Chandrachud and M.S. Sonak, advised the parties to amicably resolve the issue, which was agreed by them.
“Put an end to this now. Without affecting the rights of the plaintiffs (Salim and Javed) we will say that they have accepted the financial settlement. Resolve it...” Justice Chandrachud said.
Agreeing to this, senior counsels Ravi Kadam, Darius Khambata, Janak Dwarkadas and Rafiq Dada requested the court to take the matter in chamber so that the settlement amount is not divulged to the public at large.
The matter was then taken inside the judges’ chambers.
“The suit has been withdrawn after the parties have resolved the issue and reached at a financial settlement,” the lawyers after they came outside the chamber, but refused to divulge the amount.