Kangana Ranut’s talk show LockkUp faces legal trouble over plagiarism charges, likely to be postponed

Even before it began streaming on 27 February, as per schedule, Kangana Ranut’s talk show LockkUp, produced by Ekta Kapoor’s Balaji Telefilms is already in serious trouble. The City Civil Court of Hyderabad has issued an ad-interim injunction on releasing the upcoming show Lock Upp hosted by Kangana Ranaut. The order is awarded after a hearing and checking the documents of the petitioner Sanober Baig, who happens to be the sole right holder of the story and the script of the concept ‘The Jail’. The court also took on record the video clip of the trailer of Lock Upp and concluded that it appears similar. Since the show was to be released on 27 February; the court has passed the order with an urgent notice prohibiting the exhibition of the show on any electronic media, social media, etc. The concept is owned by Pride Media through its proprietor Sanober Baig and was written by Shaantanu Ray and Sheershak Anand and registered under the copyright act on 7 March 2018. It was registered at the Film Writers Association. In his petition, the plaintiff Mr Baig has described how the concept was developed, adding the details of the money invested by him at various stages of concept development. Commenting on the situation Sanober said “When I saw the promo of the said show I was in shock. I have been in touch with Abhishek Rege from Endemol Shine for a long time and had several meetings about the subject in Hyderabad. He had promised that once the market gets better, we will get going. The show is not only similar to our concept but an absolute copy of the same. I could not believe that somebody could plagiarise the concept to such an extent. We have prayed to the court for copyright infringement and have got a stay order.” If the infringement is proved, the defendant production houses will be liable for consequences under sections 51 and 52 of the Copyright Act. “I connected with the respective companies and requested them not to go ahead with the concept. But they turned a deaf ear and challenged that they have every right to stream as per the schedule. I had no option but to seek redressal from the judiciary. The notice has been served to all the parties involved and we have the acknowledgment of the same. If the show gets aired it’ll be a contempt of the court. I have full faith in the judiciary and am sure that justice will be served” said Baig as he signed off at the moment. Subhash K Jha is a Patna-based journalist. He’s been writing about Bollywood for long enough to know the industry inside out.