Bombay High Court refuses to grant stay on release of SRK’s Fan

Granting relief to Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan and Yash Raj Films, the Bombay high court on Monday refused to grant stay on the release of the movie Fan following a suit filed by a writer alleging copyright infringement. The court has, however, kept the suit pending and has asked the respondents to file their reply within two weeks.

Mahesh Doijode, a writer-director, through his lawyer had requested Justice Gautam S. Patel to stay the release of Fan and ask the respondents to file their reply within two days. The movie is scheduled to be released on April 15 and, observing that the plaintiff had approached the court shortly before the release of the film, the court refused to stay the release and also granted two weeks time to file reply.

Mr Doijode is seeking '25 crore from the respondents as damages. He has contended that he wrote a script that had similarities with Fan in 1994 and had registered it with the Film Writers Association under the name Abhineta in 1997.

He has further claimed that he had narrated the story to director Yash Chopra the same year when he was shooting Dil Toh Pagal Hai.

According to Mr Doijode, Chopra had liked the concept following which he narrated the story to Shah Rukh Khan also in 1998. Later, Chopra had asked him to get in touch with his son Aditya Chopra for further discussion but nothing materialised and no deal could be struck between them.

Mr Doijode said that when he saw the trailer of the movie Fan he realised that it was similar to the script written by him and approached the court seeking a stay on the release pending the suit.