Court rejects Copyright Infringement claims made by Sarwar Bhatti on Maula Jatt reboot

Maula Jutt in Trouble would make for an apt movie title except this is reality and not fiction and the upcoming Bilal Lashari film, featuring Fawad Khan, Mahira Khan, Hamza Ali Abbasi and Humaima Malick, is not really in trouble as the court clears it for production.

Here’s what has been happening: The makers of the Maula Jatt reboot, directed by Bilal Lashari and produced by Ammara Hikmat, have been facing copyright infringement claims by Mr. Sarwar Bhatti, the producer of the 1979 release Maula Jatt. Mr. Bhatti has been using different social, news and electronic media platforms to gain attention and impose undue pressure on Bilal Lashari  and Ammara Hikmat as well as targeting the rest of the cast. Earlier this week, Mr Bhatti through his counsel, filed an application for ad interim injunction before the Intellectual Property Tribunal Lahore for the purposes of obtaining stay over the exhibition and release of the Bilal Lashari’s Maula Jatt reboot, which may not even have the same title, when released. 

Read: Maula Jatt producers respond to copyright controversy

The director and producer initially refrained from responding directly to Mr Bhatti’s claims and Ms Ammara Hikmat went on record saying that she would seek legal redressal and use the right channel to address the issue at hand. Mr Bhatti in the past month has, apart from claiming rightful ownership over the film, also filed a complaint with Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and has consciously targeted the lead cast of the film by issuing them legal notices through his production company ‘Bahoo Film Association’ which successfully gauged media attention and contributed to the negative publicity of the prospective film. 

Read: Everything you need to know about Maula Jutt 2

According to a notice issued yesterday, the Intellectual Property Tribunal has categorically rejected Mr. Bhatti’s claims and the Order has been attached for further reference. According to the notice, the law dictates that anything (rather film) which is not a reproduction of the material contained in 1979 Maula Jatt CD’s, will not amount to copyright infringement in any manner as submitted by the Intellectual Property Counsel Mr. Khurram Chughtai on behalf of Encyclomedia – Lashari.