[Jersey] Movies dragged to court bomb at box office; it is a curse: Bombay High Court to producers

The appeal against an order of a single-judge of the Bombay High Court refusing to stay the release of Hindi film ‘Jersey’ was withdrawn on Tuesday [Rajneesh Jaiswal v. Dil Raju & Ors]..The single-judge order had come in the suit filed by writer Rajneesh Jaiswal, who claimed that the producers had plagiarised his script titled The Wall, registered with the Film Writers Association (now the Screenwriters Association)..The single-judge had refused to grant ad-interim relief of stay on release on the ground that there was a delay in seeking remedies. Aggrieved, Jaiswal approached the Division Bench through an appeal.Jaiswal suggested through his lawyer, Advocate Vishal Kanade, that if the producers were willing to give him credit in the film, his grievance would be taken care of."My instructions are that. If the other side gives credit then this suit can be decided,” Kanade submitted..To this, the Bench of Justices KR Shriram and NR Borkar sought a response from the producers if they were willing to consider the request put forth by Jaiswal."Don't close the door. If you see, whenever movies have been dragged to court, those movies have bombed. It is a curse! The sadness is enough to ruin it. Just consider it…If there is something, then think about it,” the Bench suggested.After thorough consideration, Senior Advocate Dr Birendra Saraf, appearing for the producer, informed the High Court that it would be difficult to concede to the request of Jaiswal as the original writer according to the producers had already been paid an amount of ₹3 crore..With this, Kanade stated on instructions that he would withdraw the appeal and hope that the film-makers could think about adding Jaiswal's name at a later stage.He requested the Bench to pass directions to the single-judge to expedite the suit, to which the Bench remarked, “Why should you be allowed to jump the queue?”.It was argued during previous hearings that Jaiswal's script was manipulated slightly to evade the scanner of plagiarism. The producers had unjustly enriched themselves and caused massive economic loss to Jaiswal, his counsel argued.Saraf, on the other hand, pointed out that a Telugu movie of the same storyline had already been released in 2019, and that the copyright plea had not claimed for any relief against that film, but was instead claiming reliefs against the Hindi film.The Bench commented that if Jaiswal had approached the courts sooner, then the film-makers could have possibly been persuaded. It had thus refused to stay the release of the film..Bombay High Court refuses to stay release of Shahid Kapoor starrer Jersey.Kanade appeared with Advocates Rajesh Singh, Ameet Mehta, Nirav Marjadi, Avani Rathod, Tanaya Patankar, Sanket Tiwari, Jill Rathod, Digisha Modh and Priya Mehra briefed by Solicis Lex.Saraf appeared with Advocates Ameet Naik, Madhu Gadodia, Megha Chandra, Sujoy Mukherji and Shrikant Pillai briefed by Naik Naik and Co.for producer Allu Aravind.