HC nod to release film on drug trials

The Bombay high court (HC) recently allowed the release of a film, dealing with the issue of unethical drug trials, which was produced in 2017, but was not released owing to a petition by a playwright who claimed the filmmakers had copied the idea from her play.

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After viewing the film and a recording of the play, the court concluded that while the main theme in both was unethical drug trials, there was a difference in the two scripts, and allowed the release of the film before January 31, 2020.

The bench of justice Shahrukh Kathawalla, while hearing a suit filed by playwright and screenwriter Shivani Tibrewala, was told she had adapted one of her plays, titled The Laboratory, into a cinematographic script and circulated it among producers and the film fraternity hoping it would be turned into a film. However, in 2017, she saw the trailer of a film titled Umeed which was similar to her script. She wrote to the producers, who, however, failed to screen the film for her.

Tibrewala then moved the court seeking a stay on the release of the film, which was granted. According to the ad-interim relief conditions, the producers were restrained from making, broadcasting, distributing and telecasting the film.

Tibrewala submitted a list of purported similarities between the two scripts. The film’s producers, however, argued that although their film was on a similar topic, there were no similarities between the two scripts, and hence, the suit should not be entertained.

After hearing the arguments of both sides and screening the film and the play, the court observed that the story line and the characters of the two projects were different.