Hrithik Roshan's next embroiled in a legal tussle

Hrithik Roshan was excited about his next film, an intense love story directed by Sanjay Gupta and produced by Hrithik's father, Rakesh Roshan.

He had apparently even asked for the film to be started earlier than scheduled and wanted to start shooting for it from January, next year.

However, according to a DNA report, buzz is that the untitled film has run into legal troubles with actor-writer, Sudhanshu Pandey, claiming to be the writer of the script. A source has been quoted in the report as saying that the script had first gone to Ekta Kapoor, but then when Sanjay Gupta met Hrithik, Sudhanshu and Ekta were left out of the picture with the Roshans wanting to produce it.

The source further claims that Sudhanshu has filed a complaint in IFTPC (Indian Film and TV Producers Council). He has apparently claimed that Rakesh Roshan wanted to produce the film all by himself and wanted to credit Sudhanshu as associate producer, which reportedly didn't go down well with the actor-writer.

Sudhanshu was allegedly kept in the dark till he heard that the film was to begin shooting from January.

Sudhanshu Pandey sends notice to Rakesh Roshan and Sanjay Gupta.

Mirror was the first to report (October 23) that Rakesh Roshan and Sanjay Gupta are teaming up for a love story-cum-revenge drama featuring Hrithik Roshan. But the film, which was to roll in Mumbai in February and be shot over a four-month marathon schedule, has found itself in a legal soup.

Mirror has learnt that model-actor Sudhanshu Pandey is suing the makers for copyright infringement of his story, screenplay and dialogue. His script was titled 'Farmayish'.

"I spent two-and-a-half years nurturing this script. It's my story and was to be the debut production, made under my banner Raw Stock Production Private Limited. I met Sanjay Gupta in May and he agreed to come on board as director and co-producer of the film. Together, we met Balaji Telefilms and pitched the story to them, they instantly agreed to join us as co-producers. We had Hrithik in mind for the lead and after one script-reading session with Sanjay, the actor gave his nod and informed that he wanted his father to hear the script. When Rakesh Roshan heard the script, he made it clear that the film would be presented and produced under his banner FilmKRAFT Productions," Sudhanshu informed Mirror on December 4.

Sudhanshu, who sent two notices to Gupta and Rakesh Roshan on December 5, pointed out that he had a meeting with the two at the latter's office on October 11 where he was told that he would be offered 2 per cent of the profit and could be involved in the project as the associate producer. However, he would not be given any credit for the story, screenplay and dialogues. "This was not acceptable to me and I walked out," he informed.

He claims that both the filmmakers stopped taking his calls after this meeting so he filed a complaint with the Indian Film and Television Producers Council (IFTPC) on November 28 claiming sole and exclusive intellectual property right, including copyright ownership on the script.

In an interesting turnaround, a public notice published in four trade magazines on December 4, stated that the script of 'Farmayish' belongs to a writer named Vijay Kumar Mishra and that Sudhanshu's Raw Stock Films has falsely claimed ownership. Sudhanshu's lawyer, Rohini Vakil, sent a legal notice to Naik, Naik & Company, the law firm which had sent out the public notice on December 5. "I have known Sanjay Gupta for a long time, he is being foolish and he knows he is wrong. I will fight this case till the end. I have all my paperwork in order," Sudhanshu revealed.

Vakil will now be submitting all the documents and interactions between Gupta, Roshan and her client, and demand a comparison of both scripts. "We know it is the same story but we will leave it to the IFTPC to call for a comparison of the two scripts," the lawyer informed.

Gupta told Mirror, "I am not denying that I met Sudhanshu or discussed a script with him. But this is not that script." He added that he did not wish to address these "one-directional, baseless allegations, without any proof", saying, "how does anyone know what script it is when nobody has announced anything yet?"

However, on December 2, Gupta had announced on Twitter, "Ok guys its true that I am working on my next with Hrithik and Rakeshji. But we have not confirmed the lead actress yet. We will soon."

When contacted, Rakesh Roshan said, "I have not officially announced the project. I think this explains it all."