Amruta, the wife of the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Devendra Fadnavis, has quietly entered Bollywood as a singer. She has already recorded two songs, for Kunal Kohli's upcoming love story, Phir Se, and Prakash Jha's soon-to-release cop drama, Jai GangaaJal. “I heard the song she had sung for Kunal Kohli and liked her voice. It's lovely, silky and very deep, I felt it was just what our devotional song, 'Sab dhan maati', required so I asked my composers, Salim-Sulaiman, to try her out. They liked her too and we recorded the track last month in two sessions over a couple of hours,“ informs Jha.

The film, which features Priyanka Chopra as the protagonist, has as many as 12 songs and all of them play in the background. This particular song is part of a sequence which features Jha himself. “I play Priyanka's junior, Deputy Superintendent of Police, BP Singh, and the song appears at a character transformation moment,“ he informs.

And what was the CM's reaction to the song? “I have no idea but Amruta was a pleasure to work with... Very simple, no airs, enthusiastic. She quietly came, recorded the song and left. The music directors later wanted to re-dub certain portions and without any fuss she came back and did the needful,“ he says warmly.

Script-writer Jyoti Kapoor has won a case of copyright violation and breach of confidence against Bollywood director-producer Kunal Kohli of Amir Khan-starrer Fanaa fame.

The Supreme Court in a landmark verdict on Monday ruled there were similarities between the storyline of Kohli's under-production film 'Phir Se' and Jyoti's script titled 'RSVP'. The court ordered that Kohli pay Jyoti a compensation of Rs 25 lakh and give her credit for 'story idea.' The verdict brought to end an eight-month battle which took Jyoti from multiple industry dispute resolution mechanisms to the High Court and then to the Supreme Court. Her victory could well redefine the station of script writers in the industry dominated by stars and powerful production houses.

While Jyoti, who spoke to Mumbai Mirror over the phone from Karnal in Haryana, described the Supreme Court verdict as a vindication of her stand, Kohli tweeted that he was happy to bring the matter to a close and focus on releasing the film. “The judges asked us to go for a settlement and I agreed, as I don't believe in fighting with members of my fraternity. Judges felt that creative people should settle to promote creativity and culture. Case is finally over. Release date to be announced soon,“ he tweeted.

Jyoti said the verdict has brought a sense of closure after eight months of back-breaking work that at times left her disillusioned. “The compensation will take care of the lawyer's fees. This is a professional, legal and moral victory for my fraternity and me. A friend who had given up on a copyright case half-way through called to say he was reopening the case,“ Jyoti said.

She said the first thing she did after the verdict was announced was polish off the dabba a relative had packed for her in the morning. “I was ravenous. Now I've come home to my parents in Karnal and my mother has cooked a delicious dinner for me,“ she said.

Jyoti's ordeal began when her agent emailed her script to Kunal. He met her and they discussed money and credit. She wanted top billing since she had given him a bound, 90-page script. But Kunal wanted certain changes and wanted to buy the script without giving any credit to her. The deal fell through.

Jyoti then opened negotiations with another producer with whom she signed an agreement and was given an advance.

Meanwhile, Kunal started his film, which will mark his acting debut, and from what she read in the papers, Jyoti detected an uncanny resemblance with her script. Subsequently, she filed a complaint with the Film Writers Association.

The Dispute Settlement Committee of the Film Writers Association ruled in Jyoti's favour, but Kohli appealed at the Appellate Tribunal, which comprises three senior writers. The Tribunal compared the two scripts without being told who had written which one. The Tribunal too detected major overlap in the two scripts. Since Jyoti had registered her script with the Film Writers Association before Kohli began work on his film, the Tribunal declared that it was a clear case of copyright violation.

The case then moved to the Joint Dispute Settlement Committee which comprises members of the Federation of Western India Cine Employees to which all 22 trade associations are affiliated. The representatives of the producers association (IMPPA) met with those of the Federation to sort out the issue. “But just before the case came up for hearing, some calls were made seeking confidential information about who was on board prompting Jyoti to move the Bombay High Court asking for a stay on Kohli's film shoot,“ said Anjum Rajabali, activist of the Film Writers Association.

The Bombay High Court asked for a guarantee of Rs 50 lakh from Kunal but vacated the stay. That was a dark day for Jyoti who recalls breaking down in court and crying all the way home to Versova in the cab. Many friends from the industry told her to drop the case. They said she stood the risk of being blacklisted. “Bills were mounting and I wanted to be able to focus on my writing. For a moment, the thought of giving up the fight crossed my mind. But then, my husband, Harsh Warrdhan, who's also a freelance writer, and I decided to move the Supreme Court which in two hearings gave its verdict. Today, I feel vindicated for all those who've been through a similar situation and thank my family, friends, the fraternity and even strangers for their unstinting support,“ she said.

Anjum said the judgement is a shot in the arm for writers who will be encouraged to take their fight for copyright to court now. “Jyoti is not a hugely successful writer, nor does she have plenty of funds behind her,“ he said, “but she is a girl with considerable talent and spirit and has shown the fraternity the way ahead.“

Kunal has been asked to withdraw the defamation case against Jyoti. He has called her names in the media like 'extortionist' and 'publicity hungry'.

The Bombay High Court on Tuesday ruled an ad interim stay on the of Kunal Kohli's film, Phir Se. Writer Jyoti Kapoor had moved court alleging that the movie is based on her script, which she had narrated to Kohli in January 2013. Through media reports last year, Jyoti found similarities in Kohli's movie and her script and accused him of plagiarism. While he denied her claims, she went to court this February. Jyoti said, “After I went to the Film Writers Association and the Dispute Settlement Committee ruled in my favour, it wasn't easy. So I went to court. I know a lot of my writer friends have gone through this, but not everyone has the wherewithal to go to court.“

When contacted Kunal said, “What I have learnt from this experience is free exchange of ideas is no longer permissible. I'd go a step further and say that it is prohibited. Debate on copyright n plagiarism is settled, it is neither. The industry has to move towards a more close and protective environment with regards to work in progress.What is left to be decided is merely one principle aspect; what is value of an idea that should be in direct proportion to authorship?“

As we all know, the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 is being held in Australia and New Zealand with India playing its first match against archrival Pakistan on February 15. The Indian team will predictably have the World Cup 2011 winning captain MS Dhoni leading the team. We have exclusively learnt that the director of M S Dhoni's biopic, Neeraj Pandey, a cricket buff himself, has directed a music video titled Phir Se that will be launched on February 15, the day of the India-Pakistan match. Telling us about it, he said, “Phir Se is an anthem, plea, prayer, dream all rolled in one. M M Kreem sahab (music director) and Manoj Muntashir (lyricist) have done this beautifully.“ Well, there is no doubt that a billion hearts will be with Dhoni, praying and hoping that he will bring back the World Cup phir se to India.