Rann dispute settled out of court

Instead of jeopardising the release of his film, Rann on Friday, filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma has settled the copyright infringement dispute with freelance journalist Sonal Mehta.

Instead of jeopardising the release of his film, Rann on Friday, filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma has settled the copyright infringement dispute with freelance journalist Sonal Mehta.

HT Image

On Wednesday, Varma’s counsels, Janak Dwarkadas and Amit Naik, submitted the consent terms in the Bombay High Court.

Both parties reached an out-of-court settlement wherein Varma and the production house have paid an undisclosed amount to Mehta.

Dwarkadas told the court that they had signed a confidentiality clause whereby none of the parties would disclose the terms of settlement.

The terms will remain in a sealed cover in court.

Mehta, who was almost in tears after the hearing, told Hindustan Times: “It’s a mutual settlement. I do not want to disclose the terms.”

Asked if she was happy with the settlement terms, she replied in the affirmative.

Last week, Mehta filed a suit against Varma in the Bombay High Court, claiming that Rann was based on her script and screenplay and she was not given due credit.

Mehta, who has earlier worked as assistant director with Varma, alleged that he asked her to come up with a theme on the media’s underbelly and had promised to involve her in the production if he liked her concept.

Rann reportedly revolves around the highly competitive world of TV news reporting.

On January 25, Mehta’s counsel Viraj Tulzapurkar had pointed out to the court the similarities between Mehta’s script, tentatively titled Break Ke Baad, and Rann.

Not only the concept of Rann, even the characters were similar to those in Break Ke Baad, Tulzapurkar had claimed.