Will Border 2 be affected by legal dispute over Border? Producer Nidhi Dutta clarifies

Even as legal disputes plague the 1997 film Border, producer Nidhi Dutta makes it clear that complainant Bharat Shah owes them instead of the other way round.

No, Border 2 will not be impacted by any disputes surrounding its 1997 predecessor, Border, clarifies producer-writer Nidhi Dutta. Speculation around the sequel’s future — starring Sunny Deol, Varun Dhawan and Diljit Dosanjh — began earlier this week after film distributor Bharat Shah issued a public notice against filmmaker JP Dutta. The notice claimed Shah was the World Rights Controllers of all copyrights for the first instalment. It also cautioned any parties entering into agreement with Dutta to take note of the proceedings of the case, which is currently ongoing at a civil court.

A still from Border (L), JP Dutta with daughter Nidhi Dutta (R)

THE DUTTAS RESPOND

Dismissing reports that the dispute would impact the upcoming war drama, Dutta tells us, “No this is not going to impact Border 2. This is a sub judiciary matter. The High Court has had all the facts for years and has dismissed the case. As per the settlement, Bharat Shah is first supposed to pay us the overflow, which he hasn’t for 27 years. Once he stands by his commitment, we can take this further. He has no right over anything to do with Border till then.”

WHAT’S THE DISPUTE ABOUT?

Published in its entirety in Complete Cinema magazine’s September 7 issue, the notice states that Bharat and Bina Bharat Shah entered into an agreement with JP Dutta on November 21, 1994, to finance the film.

When differences arose, both parties reached an agreement which stated that the revenue generated by Border would be split equally between Shah and Dutta. Another stipulation of this agreement was that Dutta keep the distributor posted about how the film was doing financially. As per Shah, the filmmaker did not keep him apprised about the film’s financials or pay his share of the profits.