Chhapaak Director Meghna Responds to Copyright Claims by Writer Rakesh Bharti
Director of the movie Chhapaak Meghna Gulzar has recently filed an affidavit against writer Rakesh Bharti in response to copyright violation charges. In her response filed before Bombay High Court (HC), she said that copyright couldn’t be claimed on true events and sought dismissal of the lawsuit seeking a stay on Chhapaak’s release scheduled to be held on January 10, 2020. Writer RakeshBharti had filed a Copyright Infringement lawsuit against director Meghna Gulzar and actress Deepika Padukone in association with their upcoming film Chhapaak in which the actress plays the role of an acid attack survivor. Based on the story of the life of an acid attack survivor named LaxmiAgarwal, the said film revolves around Malti and her struggle not just to find justice but also for self-acceptance, courage, and love for life after a 32-year-old man poured acid on her face for rejecting his proposal when she was just 15. Rakesh claimed that he, along with his son, had acquired rights to bring the reallife story of an acid attack survivor on the celluloid and that they had registered their film with the name Black Day in 2015. He added that they had shared a copy of their script with executives at Ka productions, Mriga Films, and Fox Star Studio, but found that the makers were already planning for the film separately. He also alleged that they finally wrote to the director in the year 2017, but she didn’t