Earlier, we had reported how scriptwriters Salim-Javed were miffed with producer Amit Mehra, the late Prakash Mehra’s son, for not taking them into confidence about his remake of “Zanjeer”. It was also widely reported when Amit declared that he had met them and taken their “blessings” for the project, even though the duo made it amply clear in the media that he would have to shell out royalty if he wanted to use their script again. Salim Khan even said that they weren’t doing charity, and had sold the rights to Amit’s late father for making the film only once, and not over and over again.Now, the writers have taken their battle a step further and onto legal turf. Javed Akhtar told us, “We have hired a legal team to deal with the copyright 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 vacillating, and later went to the media claiming that he has got the clearance from us and that he is going to start shooting soon. So we had no choice but to take legal action for royalty and violation of copyright.”
Akhtar reiterated that they had sold the rights to the late Prakash Mehra to make the film only once in Hindi, and that for the 1974 Tamil remake, they had sold the rights once again.
Shooting for the remake has already begun. -TOI
