Gaurav Dubey (MID-DAY; April 10, 2014)

If all goes per plan, the pornographic cartoon character Savita Bhabhi will soon be made into a film. In the meantime, its makers are taking legal action against Mastram producer Sunil Bohra over alleged copyright infringement. Says a source, “In the film Mastram, there is a character called Savita, and her role shares many similarities with the Savita Bhabhi. This is a clear case of copyright violation.”

Nitin Gupta, producer of the film, Savita Bhabhi, says, “The character of Savita Bhabhi was created in 2002 in UK and soon after, the comic strip was banned in India. Yet it is a character that enjoys a huge fan following in India. We now own the rights to make a Hindi film based on Savita Bhabhi; we bagged the rights in December last year.”

Gupta recounts that Mastram’s producer Sunil Bohra had called him earlier as he wished to own the rights to the character. “I told him that we didn’t wish to do so. Yet he has chosen to go ahead and feature a character called Savita in his film. This is a violation of copyrights; we want him to take off this character from his film,” says Gupta. He adds that the UKbased creators and copyright owners of Savita Bhabhi (Media Farm Limited) have sent a legal notice regarding this to the Bohra brothers. “It has been sent on behalf of Media Farm Limited and my production house,” he says.

When contacted, Sunil Bohra said, “I have not received any legal notice as of now; if he wishes to send me one, I know how to handle it. This is just a publicity stunt, as I own the film title, Savita Bhabhi. In fact, I had it registered with IMPPA (Indian Motion Pictures Producers Association) more than two years ago. Savita is just a character in this film.”