Mumbai: The Cuffe Parade police on Friday booked actor and stand-up comedian Vir Das and three others for violation of copyright. Theatre producer Ashvin Gidwani, the complainant, told police that Das had copied 12 jokes from the script of a previous show produced by him. The actor had allegedly included these jokes in his famous show streaming on an OTT platform.

Gidwani, producer of several popular plays, and Das had worked together over 10 years ago in a famous show, History of India VIRitten. Das had performed in this show at St. Andrew’s auditorium.

Gidwani told the police that in 2019, his company and Das decided to sign a new contract to telecast the same show with minor changes on the OTT platform. He alleged that the stand-up comic went ahead with the concept and developed his own show out of it. In January 2020, when he saw the promo of Das’, he realised that one of the jokes had been allegedly copied from their earlier show.

He immediately issued a notice to the actor and the OTT platform for violation of copyrights, but Gidwani alleged that Das apparently stated that there was no such violation. Once the show was aired, Gidwani told the police that he found that 12 jokes were copied. When TOI tried to contact Vir Das, his manager said that a private legal firm was handling the matter.