Jaipur court REJECTS plea against 'Toilet: Ek Prem Katha'

A local court in Jaipur on Saturday rejected a plea seeking a stay on the release of Akshay Kumar starrer "Toilet: Ek Prem Katha".

The arguments in the case were completed on August 2 and judgment was reserved for Saturday.

"After hearing arguments for three successive days, the Jaipur Metropolitan Court prima facie found no merit in the case and rejected the application," S.S. Hora, counsel for Viacom18, told IANS.

"We will study the judgement and then decide our future course of action," G.D. Bansal, advocate for Jaipur based filmmaker Pratik Sharma, who had brought a copyright infringement case against the makers of "Toilet: Ek Prem Katha".

Sharma brought the case against Plan C Studios, an alliance between Reliance Entertainment and Friday Filmworks helmed by Neeraj Pandey and Shital Bhatia, and Viacom18 on July 7 in a Jaipur Metropolitan Court.

Sharma had alleged that the makers of "Toilet: Ek Prem Katha" had lifted the punchline and the subject from his film "Gutrun Gutar Gun".

The court on July 26 asked the makers of "Toilet: Ek Prem Katha" to file a reply or enter into arguments in the case of copyright violation on July 31.

The court had earlier issued a notice returnable on July 22, but as a strike by the clerical staff was going on, the court gave the respondents July 26 as a new date for filing their reply.

"Toilet: Ek Prem Katha", directed by Shree Narayan Singh, deals with the need of sanitation in India and is based on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Swachh Bharat campaign. It features Bhumi Pednekar with Akshay and will release on August 11.

(Credits: IANS)