A day before release of Farhan Akhtar's Don 2, starring Bollywood actors Shahrukh Khan and Priyanka Chopra, an appeal has been filed seeking a stay on the film, alleging infringement of copyrights. A division bench of chief justice Mohit Shah and justice Roshan Dalvi will hear the appeal on Thursday. Legal heirs of Nariman Hirani, who had originally owned the rights of the film Don which was released in 1978, had filed a suit before a single judge who dismissed it on December 19, citing a delay in filing the suit.

 

The suit, filed by Nariman Films and Irani family, sought a stay on the release of Don 2, saying it has violated copyrights by adopting the Don signature tuneand also copying the original film’s script, characters and music. Nariman Hirani has claimed that the rights for making Don 1 was shared in 2005. However, it was only till 2009. They have claimed that current directors and producers, including actor Shahrukh Khan, did not procure any rights for making the sequel.

 

Naik Naik and Company, which is representing the makers of Don 2, contended that there was substantial delay in filing the suit since the film was being promoted since 2010. They stated that the prints have been distributed and seeking an injunction so late was not proper. They also claimed damages to the tune of Rs200 crore. The single judge had refused to stay release of the film but kept the prayer for damages to be decided at later stage.