Actress Kangana Ranaut recently announced that she will be starring in the sequel of her 2019 film Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi, titled Manikarnika Returns: The Legend of Didda.
However, as soon as she made the announcement on Twitter, author Ashish Kaul, who wrote the book ‘Didda: Kashmir Ki Yoddha Rani’ in 2017, and the yet to be released English version has claimed that the actress has violated his sole copyright.
The author has sent a legal notice to the actress.
The writer was upset after Kangana issued a statement saying that the film will not be based on the book.
According to the publication, the notice read, “Our Client was further appalled to discover that the nature and treatment of the character of Didda in the Proposed Film, was identical to the Narrative Text, the Book and the information communicated by Our Client in his e-mail of 11 September 2020. To add further insult to injury, Kangana Ranaut and Kamal Kumar Jain have since issued public statements alleging that their proposed Film is not based on the Book. It is re-iterated that the description of Didda as identified by Kangana Ranaut to promote the Film is identical to as set out in the Book.”
“On account of such false denunciations, Our Client has been trolled and abused by the fans of Kangana Ranaut on Twitter and has suffered extreme mental anguish. It is unfortunate that Our Client, an established and published author and one of the few leading authorities on Didda in the world, is being needlessly harassed due to the actions of Ms. Kangana Ranaut and Mr. Kamal Kumar Jain. Our Client further risks financial losses as he has been in conversation with major producers and studios for the production of a film based on the book and the script, which has been registered since 2017. The actions and representations of Ms. Kangana Ranaut, Mr. Kamal Kumar and Ms. Rangoli Ranaut will severely impact all opportunities of commercial exploitation of the Narrative Text, the Book, and the Script by Kaul,” the notice further read.
Kaul has given 72 hours time to Kangana to respond, after which he will be taking legal action against her. The author is currently in talks with Zeeshan Ahmed of 70mm Talkies for the film adaptation of his book.
