Zanjeer war: Writer duo lose round one

 While the director of the remake, Apoorva Lakhia, remained unavailable for comment, Puneet sounded jubilant when we called him after the order. He said, "Yes, we have won the case. The court has prima facie upheld that Prakash Mehra Productions is the owner of all copyrights of Zanjeer."
 The authors had claimed that they had allowed Prakash Mehra Productions (PMP) (Sumeet and Puneet Mehra were named the heirs to this production company) only to a one-time use of their script i.e. in making the original Zanjeer and had not authorised any reuse of the same. They also argued that since they retained the copyright of the 'literary work' i.e. the script, any use of the same requires their consent.

Sometime ago, Puneet had told Mirror, "We have remained quiet till now simply because Salim saab and Javed saab are veterans. But the way they have been going on about my father is unjustified. They have said that our production house minted money from Zanjeer. As if my father had no role to play in the film's success. They made it look like we made money and declined to pay them their due."

According to the Court Order (of which Mirror has a copy), Salim-Javed informed the Court that they did not have a copy of the literary work of Zanjeer after claiming it to be the 'first owners of the copy'. Salim-Javed, the scriptwriters of the original Zanjeer, had moved the Bombay High Court against Puneet and Sumeet Mehra, sons of late Prakash Mehra, who are producing the remake of the film, up for release on September 6. On Monday afternoon, the duo's application asking for a stay on the film's release was rejected.

However, they are in no mood to give up the fight and are planning to appeal to the apex court. Confirming this, Salim told Mirror, "If need be,we will take the matter to the Supreme Court."Before this however they will approach the Division Bench of the HC.