Sai Paranjpye: Film writers are vulnerable... they get a raw deal
By Khalid Mohamed
FilmmakerSai Paranjpye discloses how she was left in a lurch by the Film Writers’ Association over the David Dhawan remake of her cult comedy Chashme Buddoor .
Unbeknownst to many, five years ago, stalwart film writer and director Sai Paranjpye had appealed to the Film Writers’ Association — now known as the Screenwriters’ Association — to argue the case on her behalf against David Dhawan’s remake of her Chashme Buddoor.
She had to take the matter to court on her own, with the help of lawyers who had tremendous regard for her track record and the ever-fresh laughraiser which had featured Farouque Shaikh, Deepti Naval, Ravi Baswani, Rakesh Bedi andSaeed Jaffrey .
“The Film Writers’ Association not only proved to be useless,” Paranjpye tells Mirror, adding, “I was assured by the top officer-bearers of the association that they would take care of everything. As a result, I lost out on valuable time, and had to go to court at just a few days before the release of the remake on April 15, 2013.”
The subject of the effectiveness of the Film Writers’ Association (renamed SWA in 2014) was addressed to the spry Padma Bhushan awardee in the wake of the controversy which has erupted over Cheat India, a film on scams in the education system, starringEmraan Hashmi which will get rolling in July.
The Delhi-based writer Dinesh Gautam and actor Imran Zaidi have alleged that Cheat India is a rip-off of their script Marksheet (also to be launched in July). Reportedly, they were vexed vis-a-vis their appeal for redressal to the Screenwriters’ Association.
On its part, the Screenwriters’ Association’s official stance is that it takes all complaints seriously and has strict protocols in place. “Knowing the seriousness of copyright issues, we make every effort not just to be transparent but also neutral, giving equal opportunity to both complainants and respondents to present their case. It is owing to the due diligence practised by SWA’s Dispute Settlement Committee that its intervention is taken seriously by the film and television industries. When cases adjudicated by SWA have gone to court, judges have asked for our report and have also upheld our decisions several times,” Vinod Ranganath, Chairperson of the Dispute Settlement Committee of the SWA, had earlier told Mirror (March 28).
Paranjpye, while speaking specifically on her Chashme Buddoor experience, points out that the rights for the remake were formalised without so much as a by-your-leave by the film’s co-producer Jayshree Anand Makhija. The creative rights which accrue to the writer were ignored, leaving her with no option but to appeal to Kamlesh Pandey, then honorary general secretary of the Film Writers’ Association.
As the release date of the retread produced by Viacom 18 Motion Pictures, starring Ali Zafar, Siddharth, Divyendu Sharma, Taapsee Pannu and Rishi Kapoor, was nearing, Paranjpye was left in a quandary. “Nothing was happening,” she recalls. “I was even advised that I would have to handle the matter myself. Willy-nilly I had to go to court. Fortunately, because of my well-wishers, justice prevailed.”
Striking a cautionary note, she concludes, “I am not playing my seniority card at all, or tarring the association with one fell swoop of a brush. No writer, whose claims have substance, should go through what I did. Please understand that every writer — if he or she has a tenable case — should get a semblance of protection at the very least from the association. Film writers are vulnerable, they get a raw deal. It’s for the sake of all writers whose intellectual property rights are endangered, that I am speaking out today. Going to court is never a pleasant experience. But when a push comes to a shove, it has to be done.”
Filmmaker
Unbeknownst to many, five years ago, stalwart film writer and director Sai Paranjpye had appealed to the Film Writers’ Association — now known as the Screenwriters’ Association — to argue the case on her behalf against David Dhawan’s remake of her Chashme Buddoor.
The cult comedy classic had opened to rave reviews and housefull shows in 1981. As it turned out, Paranjpye who objected to the retread was left stranded at the last minute.
She had to take the matter to court on her own, with the help of lawyers who had tremendous regard for her track record and the ever-fresh laughraiser which had featured Farouque Shaikh, Deepti Naval, Ravi Baswani, Rakesh Bedi and
“The Film Writers’ Association not only proved to be useless,” Paranjpye tells Mirror, adding, “I was assured by the top officer-bearers of the association that they would take care of everything. As a result, I lost out on valuable time, and had to go to court at just a few days before the release of the remake on April 15, 2013.”
The subject of the effectiveness of the Film Writers’ Association (renamed SWA in 2014) was addressed to the spry Padma Bhushan awardee in the wake of the controversy which has erupted over Cheat India, a film on scams in the education system, starring
The Delhi-based writer Dinesh Gautam and actor Imran Zaidi have alleged that Cheat India is a rip-off of their script Marksheet (also to be launched in July). Reportedly, they were vexed vis-a-vis their appeal for redressal to the Screenwriters’ Association.
On its part, the Screenwriters’ Association’s official stance is that it takes all complaints seriously and has strict protocols in place. “Knowing the seriousness of copyright issues, we make every effort not just to be transparent but also neutral, giving equal opportunity to both complainants and respondents to present their case. It is owing to the due diligence practised by SWA’s Dispute Settlement Committee that its intervention is taken seriously by the film and television industries. When cases adjudicated by SWA have gone to court, judges have asked for our report and have also upheld our decisions several times,” Vinod Ranganath, Chairperson of the Dispute Settlement Committee of the SWA, had earlier told Mirror (March 28).
Paranjpye, while speaking specifically on her Chashme Buddoor experience, points out that the rights for the remake were formalised without so much as a by-your-leave by the film’s co-producer Jayshree Anand Makhija. The creative rights which accrue to the writer were ignored, leaving her with no option but to appeal to Kamlesh Pandey, then honorary general secretary of the Film Writers’ Association.
As the release date of the retread produced by Viacom 18 Motion Pictures, starring Ali Zafar, Siddharth, Divyendu Sharma, Taapsee Pannu and Rishi Kapoor, was nearing, Paranjpye was left in a quandary. “Nothing was happening,” she recalls. “I was even advised that I would have to handle the matter myself. Willy-nilly I had to go to court. Fortunately, because of my well-wishers, justice prevailed.”
Striking a cautionary note, she concludes, “I am not playing my seniority card at all, or tarring the association with one fell swoop of a brush. No writer, whose claims have substance, should go through what I did. Please understand that every writer — if he or she has a tenable case — should get a semblance of protection at the very least from the association. Film writers are vulnerable, they get a raw deal. It’s for the sake of all writers whose intellectual property rights are endangered, that I am speaking out today. Going to court is never a pleasant experience. But when a push comes to a shove, it has to be done.”
