Court rejects plea for plagiarism case against Bhandarkar

A Delhi court Wednesday rejected an author's plea for lodging a case against Bollywood filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar for copying from her book the plot of his 2008 film "Fashion".

The court said that no prima facie case is made out against Bhandarkar, the film's storywriter Ajay Monga, and film producter Ronnie Screwvala of UTV Motion Pictures.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Sanjay Sharma said: "There cannot be a copyright in an idea or plot, subject matter, themes or legendary facts. Therefore, no direction is given for registration of the FIR."

The court was hearing a plea by actress-turned-author Seema Seth who alleged that Bhandarkar stole the plot and idea for "Fashion" from her book "El Dorado", which was published three months before the release of the film Oct 29, 2008.

Seth requested the court to book Bhandarkar for violation of the Copyright Act, as the idea of the story had been taken from the book without her permission.

The court, however, has given Seth an opportunity to bring more evidence to substantiate her charge on the issue and fixed the next hearing Aug 8.