Producer moves HC for prints of unreleased 1993 film starring Hema Malini, Naseeruddin Shah

The negatives of the film were held back by the film lab after the producer Khalid Mohammed Sami failed to pay the arrears. Sami has been involved in the suit since 1995.

Khalid Mohammed Sami, the producer of a 1993 film starring Hema Malini, Naseeruddin Shah and Zeba Bakhtiar, has approached the Bombay high court (HC) seeking the handing over of the film negatives so that the movie can be released.

Khalid Mohammed Sami is hoping for a theatrical release of a movie he produced in 1993 which starred Hema Malini, Naseeruddin Shah and Zeba Bakhtiyar. (HT File)

The negatives of the film were held back by the film lab after Sami failed to pay the arrears. Sami has been involved in the suit since 1995.

The case was expedited when it came up for hearing in 2015. The bench of justice GS Patel had issued a conditional decree in Sami’s favour wherein he could get possession of the negatives after he paid the outstanding due.

In 2016, he paid the arrears amounting to ₹23.7 lakh along with interest.

However, after the film lab still failed to hand over the negatives, he filed an execution application seeking possession of the film.

According to Sami, the film deals with the exploitation of a vision-impaired, speech-impaired and hearing-impaired person played by Bakhtiar. Shah and Malini played a couple that antagonises Bakhtiar.

Son of legendary comedian Mehmood, Manzoor Ali, and Amjad Khan also played important roles in the film.

The film also has contributions by late music director Basu Chakraborty, late singer Jagjit Singh, and late lyricist Majrooh Sultanpuri.

Despite the passage of 25 years since the film was produced, Sami is still hoping for a theatrical release.