Decision on author's plea against Bhandarkar June 27

A Delhi court has reserved its order for June 27 on an author's plea for lodging a first information report (FIR) against Bollywood filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar for copying the plot of his 2008 film "Fashion" from her book.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Sanjay Sharma said that the court would June 27 decide on the plea filed by book author Seema Seth seeking compensation of Rs.2.5 crore.

"To come up June 27 for orders," said the court, in an order made available Tuesday.

The court was hearing a plea by actress-turned-author Seth alleging 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.

She 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 permission.

Seth also made Ronnie Screwvala of UTV Motion Pictures a party in the case.

The idea has been stolen from the "book wherein the story begins in Kolkata, where an aspiring model wishes to go to Mumbai but her father opposes and mother supports" the idea.

"Careful reading of the said book vis-a-vis the story of the said movie would conclude that the story/script has been taken from the said book without my permission", she contended.