With mere days left for the premiere of Kangana Ranaut’s digital debut, Lock Upp is now facing legal trouble. A case of copyright infringement was earlier filed and a Hyderabad civil Court has now issued ad-interim injunction against the producers of the reality show, namely Ekta Kapoor’s Balaji Telefilms and Alt Balaji. The producer has been separately named in the case, along with Karan Medi’s MX Player and Endemol Shine.
The Hyderabad City Civil Court in the order dated February 23 said, “Issue ad interim injunction against the respondents/defendants, their men and agents or any other person working on their behalf, from releasing, exhibiting, publishing the series in the name of Lock Upp or in any other name by the defendants in theaters, OTT platforms, you tube, any electronic media, and social media, etc.” The next hearing will be held on March 9.
Apparently, Sanober Baig, who has filed the case has claimed that he registered the show’s idea with the Screen Writers’ Association in 2018 and he and director Shantanu Re have been working on the show called The Jail. He also alleged that Endemol’s Chief Executive Officer, Abhishek Rage had been in touch with him and promised to work on the show once the pandemic was over. He also said in his plea that he had pitched his idea to Star Plus but it did not materialise.
Sanober confirmed about notices being served in person to a leading daily and said, “I am not looking for fame or money. My whole team - the writer, scriptwriter, director, everyone - worked on the concept for at least eight months.” He also said that it is not acceptable that someone else uses his idea without “our approval”. When asked whether he sought credit for his idea, compensation, or participation he said, “I would like to leave that for the court to decide. When I had the discussion in 2020, Endemol had assured me that we would do this as a joint concept. Then, he (Enddemol CEO Abhishek)decided to share this with Alt Balaji and they have collaborated and are now doing this show. It is kind of backstabbing to me.”
Sanober’s concept was eerily similar to Kangana’s and Ekta’s show where the contestants were supposed to be in costumes with one jailor, one assistant jailor, three male guards and three female guards and will be locked in one jail for 100 days. The show was supposed to feature 22 celebs. The producers of Lock Upp have not responded to the order but the latest promo does not feature the show’s premiere date. It was originally supposed to begin airing from February 27 and will have Nisha Rawal, Babita Phogat, Poonam Pandey, Karanvir Bohra, and Munawar Faruqui as confirmed contestants.
(Source: Hindustan Times)
