Amitabh Bachchan and Boman Irani starrer 'Bhootnath Returns' will hit theatres on April 11 as per schedule as the Delhi High Court today refused to stay its release and rejected an interim plea of a Hindi writer that the film was copied from his literary work.
Justice A K Pathak asked the producers and others to file their response to the lawsuit of Sushant Supriya, Hindi short story writer and poet, within four weeks.
The court, however, rejected the interim application of the author that the relase of the movie be stalled otherwise he will face irreparable injury.
It perused, analysed and compared the brief synopsis of the script of the film and the trailer with the story 'Bhootnath' written by Supriya in 2007.
"Their perusal shows that there may be some semblance between the petitioner's story and the film as they both relate to ghost....But there is no substantial similarities between the two," the court said.
'Bhootnath Returns' is a sequel of 2008 movie 'Bhootnath', a ghost-based film whose shooting had started in 2006 and the story of Supriya was published in 2007, it said.
The court, however, made clear that its views were not final and listed the case for hearing on July 7.
During the hearing, senior advocate Pratibha Maninder Singh, appearing for the author, referred to nine expressions from the trailer of the movie and said they have been copied from short story 'Bhootnath' of the writer published in 2007 in Hindi magazine 'Aaj Kal'.
The lawyer said 'Bhootnath Returns' is not the sequel of earlier movie 'Bhootnath'.
Earlier, a larger bench had first asked the writer and the other parties to try to settle the dispute and later said that the single judge bench will decide the issue.
The petition had sought a direction from the court that the producers be prevented from "screening trailer" and releasing the "infringing" film in theatres.
