Salman Khan’s Dad’s Case Against Toofan

Ram Charan Teja’s latest outing Toofan and its Hindi version Zanjeer have cleared from all legal problems on September 2, 2013. The Bombay High Court has dismissed the application of Salman Khan’s father Salim and Javed Akhtar, who were seeking interim injunction on the release of director Apoorva Lakhia’s Zanjeer remake starring Priyanka Chopra in the female lead.

After hearing the case, the Bombay High Court held that Salim-Javed had approached the court with an incorrect case, twisted their case in the course of hearing, belied their initial story pleaded in their plaint and failing to substantiate their incorrect case attempted to procure certain affidavits and letters which the court refused to give credence to.

Salim Khan has made incorrect statements before the court and has given explanations on oath before the court which on the face of it is incorrect. The court has opined that, prima facie it is Shri Prakash Mehra who was the owner of the copyright in the underlying literary work of the original film Zanjeer and not Salim-Javed as contended.

The court has also importantly observed that, even if the court had reached a conclusion in favour of Salim-Javed holding copyright, as alleged, Salim-Javed would still not be entitled to any reliefs sought by them on ground of their deliberate delay in initiating the aforesaid legal action. In fact, the Court has categorically concluded that they were certainly guilty of delay on their own part in approaching the court.

The court has also observed that acceptance of Salim-Javed’s case of mandatory injunction in the facts and circumstances would be totally unfair to the producers, as from day one up to the completion of the shooting Salim-Javed have repeatedly claimed Money for their alleged case of copyright infringement hence disentitling them of any injunctive relief. The court has observed that the balance of convenience lies in favour of the defendants requiring rejection of the reliefs sought by Salim-Javed.