Amitabh Bachchan’s ‘Sarkar 3’ in legal trouble over copyright infringement

Amitabh Bachchan starrer Sarkar 3 landed in legal trouble after Narendra Hirawat & Co filed a case against the makers of the upcoming Ram Gopal Varma directorial on the grounds of copyright infringement.

Narendra Hirawat & Co, which holds the copyrights of over 1300 movies, acquired the copyrights of the Sarkar franchise after the release of the second part and is in possession of prequel, sequel, remake and all other irreversible world negative rights in perpetuity.

“We are extremely disappointed with this move from the producers of Sarkar 3. As a cautionary step, we even issued a notice to the makers in October 2016, but they have still failed to obtain permission from us for the release of the movie,” Shreyans Hirawat, executive head of Narendra Hirawat & Co, said in a statement.

“We bought all the legal rights of Sarkar franchise years ago and are left with no other option than to approach the high court,” Hirawat said.

“Looking at the current situation, we are hopeful that the court will grant injunction and subsequently stop the release of Sarkar 3,” he added.

In response, a statement from the spokesperson of the production house Alumbra Entertainment & Media Pvt Ltd read, “The press release issued by Narendra Hirawat & Co is not only distasteful, represents false facts but also against the law.”

The spokesperson further said that Narendra Hirawat & Co are wrongly contending before the court that the present movie Sarkar 3 is a remake of the original movie Sarkar.

“However, this position is absolutely wrong. As is widely known, the story in all three movie has been progressing and thus, movie Sarkar 3 is a sequel to the film Sarkar Raj and not a remake of Sarkar.”

The first installment of the franchise, ‘Sarkar’, was released in 2005. It’s sequel, titled ‘Sarkar Raj’, was released in 2008. ‘Sarkar 3’ is the third part of the franchise and is scheduled to release on May 12.