And the battle continues

Earlier, we had reported Salim-Javed were miffed with producer Amit Mehra, late Prakash Mehra's son, for not taking them into confidence about his much-hyped remake of the 1973 blockbuster Zanjeer.

Later, we revealed that when Amit met the duo to seek their blessings and good wishes, the scriptwriters of the original Zanjeer made it amply clear he would have to shell out a substantial sum as royalty if he wanted their script re-translated on celluloid. Salim Khan even said they weren't doing charity and had sold the rights to Amit's late father for making the film once, and not over and over again.

While friends of the Mehra's haven't taken too kindly to all of this, Mirror can tell you the writers have taken their battle a step further and onto legal turf.

When contacted, Javed Akhtar said, "We have hired a legal team to deal with the copy right issue of Zanjeer. Amit Mehra had come to me and Salim for the permission to remake the blockbuster. We suggested sitting across the table and sorting out the matter professionally however Amit kept on vascillating and later went to the media claiming he has got the clearance from us and he is going to start shooting soon. So we had no choice but to take legal action for royalty for the copyright."

Akhtar reiterated they had sold the rights to late Prakash Mehra to make the film only once in Hindi and that for the 1974 Tamil remake, it was them who sold the rights once again.

While shooting for the new Zanjeer has already begun, it comes as a surprise that Akhtar, who had not so long ago led a bunch of music directors and singers to rally against producers on the very same issue of royalty should be the one to lead the charge in demanding it.

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