Amitabh & Ayushmann’s ‘Gulabo Sitabo’ In Legal Trouble Over Plagiarism

Mumbai: Ahead of its OTT premiere, Amitabh Bachchan and Ayushmann Khurrana-starrer ‘Gulabo Sitabo’ has hit a rough patch once again.

According to reports, petitioner Akira Agarwal, son of late writer Rajeev Agarwal, claimed that the ‘Gulabo Sitabo’ writer Juhi Chaturvedi had stolen the script of his father.

Akira stated that his father Rajeev Agarwal had submitted his script titled ‘16, Mohandas Lane’ at a scriptwriting contest, Cinestaan India’s Storyteller Script Contest and Juhi was a jury member at the contest.

Juhi had access to Rajeev’s script and now, she has produced the script for ‘Gulabo Sitabo’ as her own, he alleged.

However, Juhi has denied the allegations and instead claimed that the script is her original work.

“My conscience is clear, and so are the facts in this matter. ‘Gulabo Sitabo’ is my original work and I am proud of it. I shared the idea with the director (Shoojit Sircar) and lead actor (Amitabh Bachchan) of the film early in 2017. I subsequently registered the concept note for the film in May 2018,” said Juhi.

“I also must clarify the speculations around my conduct as a jury member for Cinestaan’s contest. I had no access to the so-called infringed script at any point in time, as alleged. This fact has been independently confirmed by Cinestaan as well,” she added.

On behalf of Akira, advocate Rizwan Siddiquee has sent a legal notice to the makers of ‘Gulabo Sitabo’.

Hel has also filed a complaint at Mumbai’s Juhu Police Station in this regard.

‘Gulabo Sitabo’ features Amitabh Bachchan as Mirza, the landlord and Ayushmann Khurrana as Baankey, the shrewd tenant.

Produced by Ronnie Lahiri and Sheel Kumar, the film is all set to premiere worldwide on June 12 on Amazon Prime Video.