Salim Khan puts 6-cr. hurdle before Zanjeer remake

Salim Khan puts 6-crore hurdle before Zanjeer remake

The time for negotiations is over, says the veteran scriptwriter, who has now demanded a hefty compensation from the producers remaking the Salim-Javed classic

Soumyadiptya Banerjee and Mehul S Thakkar (MUMBAI MIRROR; January 24, 2013)

Salim Khan has vowed to keep up the fight for his intellectual rights over the Zanjeer remake. Mirror has learnt that the veteran scriptwriter, with the support of his creative partner Javed Akhtar has demanded a compensation package of Rs 6 crore from the makers of the remake – Amit Mehra and Reliance. He has sent off a strongly-worded letter to the Scriptwriter's Association which is expected to pursue the matter in all seriousness. Sources say, the trinity of Salman, Arbaaz and Sohail are likely to add muscle to thier father's fight.

Ever since the Zanjeer remake went to the floors, Salim-Javed have been demanding their 'royalty.' Amit Mehra, son of the late Prakash Mehra, the original producer, has been arguing that since the writers had already been paid once, they were not liable to be paid again. However, citing the intellectual property and copyright acts, Salim-Javed had argued that as writers, they ought to be compensated. It was not enough to merely seek their 'blessings.'

The new version of Zanjeer, starring Ram Charan Teja and Priyanka Chopra, is nearly complete and several rounds of talks between the warring parties have failed. However recently, Salim-Javed met the producers again and suggested an 'amicable' end to the stalemate. It is learnt that the producers refused to bow down to their demand. "We have asked for Rs 3 crore as royalty for the Hindi script and Rs 3 crore for the South remake. When the original was made, I had kept the copyright of the southern version," said Salim Khan to Mirror.

After the last round of negotiation too broke down, Salim Khan decided to approach the association and escalate the war. Khan says he, alongwith with Javed Akhtar, is the owner of the original script. "I have the copyright to my script which I licensed to Prakash Mehra for his film back then. If you want to make a film based on my script again, you have to pay me," he argues.

When contacted, Amit Mehra refused to comment.

Salim Khan now approaches FWICE to help get 6 cr royalty