Nanak Shah Fakir, the Guru Nanak bio-pic, released on Friday. And the battle over its creative rights took a dramatic turn. Sartaj Singh Pannu, who claims to be the director, has taken producer Harinder Sikka to court for allegedly usurping his directorial credit. The case was filed in Delhi High court in November 2014. A judgement is expected on Monday. The film opened three days earlier with Sikka mentioning Gurunanak Shah Fakir, the Almighty, as the director.

Tom Alter, part of the film's cast, protested the exclusion of Pannu's name from the credits by standing outside a theatre in Delhi with a board which announced, "The film is directed by Sartaj Singh Pannu. In the holy name of Guru Nanak Ji, let the truth prevail."

When quizzed, he said, "More than the legal battle this is my way of showing my dissent to this gross case of injustice and copyright violation to Pannu by the production company. I've seen him working hard. It's sad that the film has released without his name." He was the solo protester at the spot.

Pannu said that the producer had always wanted to hog the entire credit and treated him as an assistant on the sets. "I spent two-and-a-half years on the Rs 35 crore project only to find that Sikka had released the trailer online with his name as the director. I have 60 testimonials from my unit, imcluding Tom Alter, Arif Zakaria and Adil Hussain in my support."

Sikka however insisted that Pannu was thrown out on October 25, 2013, for his abusive behaviour, unwillingness to shoot a song and for putting up a website mentioning himself as the writer, director and producer. "Why should I not release when all the film associations, IMPPA, IFTDA and FWICE, have not objected to the release?" he argued.