Two cousins are embroiled in a legal battle. And all over Aishwarya Bachchan’s wedding sari.
Shortly before the Abhi-Ash wedding on April 20, the Bachchans paid Rs 2.30 lakh to buy two exquisite paat (silk) sarees — ‘Double Ikat’ and ‘Radhakunja’ — for their prospective daughter-in-law from noted Sambalpuri tie-and-dye exponent Padmashree Chaturbhuj Meher.
Chaturbhuj Meher’s first cousin Kailash Meher has now lodged an FIR against him at the Bolangir Town police station accusing him of copyright violation. He has claimed that Chaturbhuj plagiarised his internationally acclaimed painting ‘Tree of Life’, using it as a pattern in one of the sarees.
Kailash, who has won a President’s Award and a UNESCO Award for his painting, said, "I survive purely on my earnings from painting. The unwanted act by Padmashree Chaturbhuj Meher has affected my image as an artist. I’ve suffered huge financial losses also."
Chaturbhuj said he was not aware of any case against him. "How can I lift Kailash’s work? He is a painter, while I am a tie-and-dye artist. The ‘Tree for Life’ or ‘Kalpabrikshya’ he is talking about is an oil painting. The visual I’ve used on the saree was inscribed by the tie-and-dye method. How can the two have anything in common?"
He added he had not received any notice from any police station. But a case has been registered under Section 157 (sub-section 3) of the Criminal Procedure Code and Sections 379, 500 and 506 and Section 63 of Indian Copyright Act, said Bolangir Town police inspector-in-charge Nagendra Naik.
{{/usCountry}}He added he had not received any notice from any police station. But a case has been registered under Section 157 (sub-section 3) of the Criminal Procedure Code and Sections 379, 500 and 506 and Section 63 of Indian Copyright Act, said Bolangir Town police inspector-in-charge Nagendra Naik.
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