T-Series, Vashu Bhagnani at loggerheads over rights of 'Batti Gul...', 'Fanne Khan'

Producer Vashu Bhagnani has claimed he was given parallel rights in Anil Kapoor's "Fanne Khan" as well as "Batti Gul Meter Chalu" by KriArj Entertainment which is no more part of the projects, but current producers T-Series has denied knowledge of any such deal.

According to T-Series, they took over the projects long before Prerna Arora's KriArj Entertainment got into an agreement with Pooja Entertainment and Films Limited of Bhagnani.

T-Series is now co-producing these films along with other companies such as Krti Pictures and Rakeysh Om Prakash Mehra Productions.

In a public notice, Bhagnani's lawyer said the producer has exhibition, distribution and exploitation of commercial and non-commercial theatrical rights of the films for all India territory.

The notice further read that Bhagnani has notified his claims to T-Series and KriArj Entertainment and has not given any permission or NOC for the release of the two films.

T-Series, however, said they have no knowledge of such a deal and have disputed its validity. The banner, owned by Bhushan Kumar, maintained its claims of having valid and superior rights in these films and is ready to move to the court if required.

"The number of people claiming parallel rights in these films is quite astonishing. We had filed a suit last month before the Delhi High Court against Kriarj, Gothic Entertainment, Ease My Trip and other such entities. After considering all the materials on record, the court had issued an order in T-Series' favour observing that Kriarj did not have the right to grant any third party rights or create any lien over the film without taking the written consent of T-Series who was jointly producing the film 'Batti Gul Meter Chalu' with Kriarj," Ankit Relan from the legal team of T-Series claimed in a statement.

T-Series said they had never given any written consent to any such agreements or the grant of liens by Kriarj and "accordingly its rights were upheld by the court which restrained all these parties from interfering in the exploitation of rights, including distribution rights therein by T-Series and held that only T-Series had the right to do so as per its co-production agreement with Kriarj".

"This agreement, I want to clarify, was executed much prior to the agreement under which Pooja Films and Vashu ji are claiming rights under. Given the protection already offered by the court against other similarly placed claimants, I don't see how Vashu ji's claims will hold up in court," Relan added.