Last seen in Begusarai, which aired on &TV from 2015-2016, popular television actress Shweta Tiwari was set to make her small screen comeback with the forthcoming Sony Entertainment Television show Mere Dad Ki Dulhan.
Shweta has been paired opposite seasoned actor Varun Badola on the show. The channel launched the promo of Mere Dad Ki Dulhan a couple of weeks ago, which received warm response from the audience. However, ahead of its grand launch, the show has landed in a legal trouble.
Punjabi film producer and actor Preeti Sapru has accused the producers of the show, Tony and Deeya Singh, of plagiarizing the content from her upcoming film. She has even filed a case against the producers.
Preeti Sapru’s advocate Abhijeet Desai told a leading daily, “My client had registered the script with IMPPA (Indian Motion Pictures Producers Association) and The Screenwriters Association in 2017. Before filing the lawsuit, when we raised this issue with IMPPA, the makers of the show did not come up with any clarification and therefore, we had to go to court for infringement of copyright. We are hoping for some interim relief before the release date of the show.”
Giving a clarification, producer Deeya Singh said in a statement, “We had narrated the show to the channel in 2017, and we have emails to prove it. We had thought of the idea and shared it as well before Preeti registered it. Also, there is a common misconception that copyright is applicable only after registration, whereas merely creating the work is enough for that. We don’t know Preeti at all. We have a letter from SWA saying that we were going to reply, but before we could respond, Preeti went to court.”
Reacting to the statement, Preeti said, “I have spent a lot of money in the making of my film. It is 90 percent complete, and we plan to release it next year. If a similar show is aired before my movie releases, people will think that my film is a rip-off. And that is not true because we had registered the concept in advance. If she has proof to show that she had shared the show’s concept in 2017, we want to see it.”
It remains to be seen whether or not the show will manage to hit the airwaves on its scheduled launch date.
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