Days before it starts streaming on Amazon Prime, ‘Gulabo Sitabo’s’ producers are facing charges of plagiarism. Akira, the son of late screenwriter Rajeev Aggarwal has sent the team a legal notice a few days back. He had alleged that the film’s script is based on his father’s story ‘13, Mohandas Lane’. He stated that his father had submitted the story in Cinestaan India’s Storyteller Script Contest.
The contest promoted by the Scriptwriters Association had Juhi Chaturvedi as its jury member and who has allegedly stolen the script’s idea for ‘Gulabo Sitabo’. Now, the production house of the film, Rising Sun Films have come out with a statement, dismissing Akira’s allegations.
In their statement, producers Shoojit Sircar and Ronnie Lahiri are saying-
‘To begin with, Juhi’s concept for the film was registered in 2018, much before the contest. Furthermore, Juhi never received a copy of the supposedly copied script. This has been independently confirmed by the script writing contest organizers as well. Lastly, our film’s story is different from that sent out in the notice. It is surprising how grave allegations are being made solely on the basis of a 2 minute 41 second trailer”.
It further adds that the SWA ( Scriptwriters Association) had on May 29th ruled the case in favour of Juhi Chaturvedi which has upsetted Akira. They are accusing Akira of harassing and damaging the reputation of the film and the writer. Ending their statement, the producers said that they have full faith in their film and requested the Media to ignore such baseless allegations.
The Ayushmann Khurrana and Amitabh Bacchan is set to stream from June 12 on Amazon Prime.