If Gulaab Gang, which stars Madhuri Dixit and Juhi Chawla, managed to hit the screens on Friday then it was only by frantic legal wrangling. Otherwise it too was going to be victim to the tactic of last minute court cases filed to block a movie’s release.
Two days before the release, suddenly there came news that a court had ordered a stay on its release. This was at the behest of Sampat Pal Devi, an activist who had formed a group called Gulabi Gang in the state of Uttar Pradesh to fight against injustice.
The organisation has been written about extensively and there have been more than one documentaries on it. Indeed, some weeks ago a documentary called Gulabi Gang had been released. Anyone who saw the promos of Gulaab Gang knew that it was based on Sampat Pal Devi’s life and work.
And yet, the movie’s producers had apparently not taken her consent for the movie. It was this slight which is said to have made her move court and get a stay on it. To compound the problem, when the issue became public, the filmmakers said that there were many women’s organisation in the country and their movie was not based only on Devi.
All in all, they burnt all possible bridges for a reconciliation and when the court gave a stay on the release it looked like they were in for a serious crisis. The day before the release, however, the filmmaker appealed to a court and got the stay removed.
The movie was shown as scheduled. The reason such issues get out of control is usually because of a lack of generosity on the part of Bollywood. If you are a making a movie on a person’s life, surely it is common sense that you include and compensate her for it.
In an earlier age nobody bothered with such niceties but with the courts now stepping in more proactively for those whose copyrights or reputation are at stake, filmmakers keep getting into crisis...
Two days before the release, suddenly there came news that a court had ordered a stay on its release. This was at the behest of Sampat Pal Devi, an activist who had formed a group called Gulabi Gang in the state of Uttar Pradesh to fight against injustice.
The organisation has been written about extensively and there have been more than one documentaries on it. Indeed, some weeks ago a documentary called Gulabi Gang had been released. Anyone who saw the promos of Gulaab Gang knew that it was based on Sampat Pal Devi’s life and work.
And yet, the movie’s producers had apparently not taken her consent for the movie. It was this slight which is said to have made her move court and get a stay on it. To compound the problem, when the issue became public, the filmmakers said that there were many women’s organisation in the country and their movie was not based only on Devi.
All in all, they burnt all possible bridges for a reconciliation and when the court gave a stay on the release it looked like they were in for a serious crisis. The day before the release, however, the filmmaker appealed to a court and got the stay removed.
The movie was shown as scheduled. The reason such issues get out of control is usually because of a lack of generosity on the part of Bollywood. If you are a making a movie on a person’s life, surely it is common sense that you include and compensate her for it.
In an earlier age nobody bothered with such niceties but with the courts now stepping in more proactively for those whose copyrights or reputation are at stake, filmmakers keep getting into crisis...
Source: Entertainment News & Box Office Report
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