Mission Mangal: Lawsuit Filed Against Akshay Kumar-Vidya Balan Starrer Over Copyright Issues

Days after the cast started working on Akshay Kumar-Vidya Balan starrer Mission Mangal, a lawsuit has been filed against the makers of the project. A US-based filmmaker Radha Bharadwaj has alleged that R Balki production "infringes on the copyright of her original screenplay that she had shared with Atul Kasbekar in 2016", as per a report in mid-day. Rekha has alleged that she shared shared a script based on similar lines with Atul Kasbekar's studio, Ellipsis Entertainment and Vidya Balan back in 2016. And now, the actress is a part of another project (Mission Mangal) based on the same storyline. "There are hundreds of ways to tell the story of Mangalyaan, but Radha came up with the angle of focusing on the women engineers working on the mission," said Rekha's lawyer, Srishti Ojha. Bharadwaj recently completed shooting her film that's based on the same story and is titled Space MOMs.

Her lawyer also claims that Rekha and Kasbekar were to work on the movie together with Ellipsis Entertainment financing the film. In her lawsuit against Kasbekar's company, Bharadwaj states that the firm signed a non-disclosure agreement that prohibited them from disclosing her project to anyone without her written consent, as stated in the daily. Mission Mangal: Akshay Kumar Reveals His 'Team' Featuring Vidya Balan, Sonakshi Sinha, Nithya Menen, Taapsee Pannu, Kirti Kulhari and Sharman Joshi.

"I'll bet the details of the origin of this project were not known to Akshay Kumar, Fox Star or its US partners. But now that they know it, I ask them to act honourably. I have documentation going back to 2014 on my efforts to bring this story to screen."

Commenting on the the same, Ellipsis Entertainment's managing partner Tanuj Garg, was quoted saying, "Back in 2016, Radha and David [husband] were in touch with us on the subject. We interacted for a while to attempt producing her script, but eventually parted ways amicably as we were unable to reach a mutual understanding on the creative route forward. Ellipsis is not connected with the film that is currently under production in any way."

It was only a couple of days back when actor Sanjay Kapoor shared a pic with Vidya Balan from the sets of the film. The duo was shooting in Chembur and are supposed to be playing husband and wife in the film.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 22, 2018 08:42 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).