Bhopal: Akshay Kumar and Bhumi Padnekar’s upcoming social satire Toilet: Ek Prem Katha has landed in trouble with a writer in Madhya Pradesh levelling plagiarism charges against the lyricists in the movie.
The plagiarism charge comes barely a fortnight after filmmaker Praveen Vyas threatened legal action against the movie, slated for all India release on August 11, for allegedly stealing several sequences and dialogues of his award-winning documentary titled Manini.
Naveen Joshi, a resident of district headquarters town of Jabalpur in MP, claimed a popular number titled Hans Mat Pagle in the film, unveiled recently, has been plagiarised without taking his permission.
“I have penned the lyric in 2015 and registered it with the Script Writers Association, Mumbai, on February 9, 2016. My lyric has been plagiarised in the film with minor changes in the ‘Antara’ (interlude). The title, Hans Mat Pagle…, has remained unchanged.
I have sent legal notice to producer, director and lyricists of the movie for stealing my song. I am yet to receive any response from them,” Mr Joshi told this newspaper on Saturday.
Shreya Goshal has sung the song. The film directed by Narayan Singh revolves around the social theme of the need for sanitisation in rural areas and is based on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s flagship scheme, Swachh Bharat Mission.
In a related development, the mayor of Hosangabad municipal corporation in Madhya Pradesh has taken strong exception to the reported claim by the promoter of the movie that a sequence was shot at Vrindaban in Mathura, Uttar Pradesh, whereas, according to him, it was filmed at the bank of river Narmada in Hosangabad district.
