There was finally some good news for the Shahid Kapoor-Yami Gautam-Shraddha Kapoor film Batti Gul Meter Chalu (BGMC). The shooting of the stalled film which is being directed by Shree Narayan Singh had finally started after Bhushan Kumar of T-Series took over the from Prernaa Arora and Arjun N Kapoor’s KriArj Entertainment. The production house was facing monetary issues due to which the shooting of the film was on hold. However, it seems that the project is jinxed as Vipul Rawal, the writer of Rustom has filed a complaint with the Film Writers Association (FWA) against director Shree Narayan Singh and writers Siddharth and Garima Rawal of copyright infringement and unethical behavior.
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In his complaint, Vipul has stated that he had registered the story under the title Roshini in 2009 and put in a final draft in 2016. KriArj Entertainment took up the story in 2017 and finally Shahid and Shraddha were signed on as lead actors. In a statement, Vipul said, “The director wanted certain changes in the screenplay and for that, he decided to employ writers of his choice to make the modifications in my screenplay. The pre-production started and the dates for shooting were locked. However, when the first teaser came out, my name wasn’t mentioned anywhere. Instead, it boldly proclaimed, ‘From the writer and director of Toilet: Ek Prem Katha’. Immediately, I sent multiple mails to the producers, who assured me that the issue will be rectified at the earliest.”
Vipul claims that he wrote several mails to the director for asking for rectification. He said, “The director’s partner, Nitin Chandrachud, sent me a mail saying that the subject of my film (electricity) is in public domain and anyone can write on it. This, after the entire project, was set up on the basis of the screenplay written by me. They also mentioned that they will mention my credits only as ‘concept by’, which is totally unacceptable to me.”
Vipul’s lawyer Rohini Vakil said, “We have sent a legal notice to them and a public notice will also be published on Saturday. I want my client’s right to be protected. Batti Gul Meter Chalu is from the writer of Rustom and not Toilet Ek Prem Katha as claimed in the teaser.” The film has been in hot waters for some time now as the shoot was stalled citing monetary issues. It was reported that the actors as well as the crew members were not paid their fees due to which they refused from continuing the shooting.
