Bharati Dubey (MID-DAY; January 30, 2014)

The Bombay High Court has stayed the release of Mohan Babu’s Telugu film Pandavulu Pandavulu Thummeda (PPT) which is allegedly the remake of Rohit Shetty’s film, Golmaal 3. The court on Tuesday passed this stay order and appointed a court receiver to take custody of the film.

A source close to the owners of the rights of Golmaal 3 said that the Telugu film producers had initially approached them for the film’s rights but couldn’t close the deal, as the two parties couldn’t arrive at a mutually agreeable price. It is said that the Telugu film’s producers then announced their decision to move on to another script. However, Raju Shah, who owns the rights of Golmaal 3, realised that this wasn’t the case. Accordingly, he moved court in order to stop the Telugu film from releasing this Friday.

When contacted, Raju Shah told HitList, “The producers of PPT were asked by the court to file an affidavit stating that they have not copied Golmaal 3. But they failed to appear in court, which implies they have copied my film with out buying its rights. Also, one of the producers of the film admitted in a media interview that they have lifted scenes from Golmaal 3.”