Ayushmann Khurrana’s upcoming movie Bala, which is based on a young man deal with premature baldness, has found itself in hot soup again. This time, the film is facing legal charges as an upcoming filmmaker, Kamal Kant Chandra, has claimed that the story of the film has been stolen from his own biopic. The budding director has asked for a permanent stay on the release of Bala, because it is allegedly his “life story”.
“I want that there should be a permanent stay on the film Bala, and that I get to make the film. It is basically my biopic. It’s my life story,” said Chandra, whose upcoming film Marksheet features Mahesh Bhatt.
Chandra has claimed that he had approached Ayushmann about the film back in 2017. “I met Ayushmann during the promotion of Bareilly Ki Barfi,” he said. The two had set up a meeting to discuss the movie, but Ayushmann reportedly never showed up. Chandra, however, still shared the story of the film with Ayushmann, and repeatedly followed up with him till a year. Later, his manager told Chandra that Ayushmann was not interested in playing a bald man at the moment.
However, a year later, around December 2018, Chandra found out that Ayushmann had signed up to play a man with premature balding for another film. “I was shocked. I sent him a legal notice. I also filed a case against him and the makers in Bombay High Court in March. Bala’s producer Dinesh Vijan’s company said that they were working on the script that time,” Chandra told a news agency.
When nothing came of it, and the filming of Bala had already begun, he decided to take further action. “I moved the Supreme Court in October 2019. There was a hearing today (November 4) in the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court has ordered Bombay High Court to resolve the matter before Bala releases on November 8,” said Chandra.
This is not the first time Bala has courted controversy. When the film was announced, it faced similar issues of plagiarism from the makers of Ujda Chaman, a movie that was also based on a similar storyline. Later, a Jaipur court issued summons against the producers of Bala, after a man named Naman Goyal alleged that the movie was plagiarised from his short film.
Do you think the film will be able to survive despite all the controversies surrounding its release? Let’s hope so!
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