‘Toilet: Ek Prem Katha’ copyright case rejected

A local court in Jaipur rejected a plea seeking a stay on the release of Toilet: Ek Prem Katha, starring Akshay Kumar.

The arguments in the case were completed on August 2 and judgement was reserved for Saturday.

“After hearing arguments for three successive days, the Jaipur Metropolitan Court prima facie found no merit in the case and rejected the application,” said SS Hora, counsel for Viacom18.

“We will study the judgement and then decide our future course of action,” GD Bansal, advocate for Jaipur-based filmmaker Pratik Sharma, who filed a copyright infringement case against the makers of Toilet: Ek Prem Katha.

Sharma brought the case against Plan C Studios, an alliance between Reliance Entertainment and Friday Filmworks helmed by Neeraj Pandey and Shital Bhatia, and Viacom18 on July 7 in a Jaipur Metropolitan Court.

Sharma had alleged that the makers of Toilet: Ek Prem Katha had lifted the punchline and the subject from his film Gutrun Gutar Gun.

Toilet: Ek Prem Katha, directed by Shree Narayan Singh, deals with the need for sanitation in India and is based on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Swachh Bharat campaign.

The film also features Bhumi Pednekar and will release in the UAE on August 10.