Filmmaker Sujoy Ghosh has opened about the legal trouble over his 2016 film Kahaani 2: Durga Rani Singh, saying that he never imagined a plagiarism complaint over would escalate into a decade-long criminal case, and urged fellow creators to treat such threats with seriousness from the outset.

Speaking at a session hosted by the Screenwriters Association (SWA), Ghosh recalled how the controversy began soon after the release of the Vidya Balan-starrer, when writer Robin Bhatt informed him that a man was accusing him of copying his script.

Dismissing the claim as baseless at the time, Sujoy said his casual approach proved costly.

"It's like somebody saying, 'You killed that person', I was like, 'I haven't' and why should I take it seriously, and that was my biggest mistake. Suddenly, I get a criminal case against me because IP in our country is a criminal case,” the filmmaker said at a session hosted by Screenwriters Association (SWA) around the disputes within the screenwriting community.

"So, if I accuse you of (plagiarising), you can file a criminal case against me. It came out of nowhere. Initially, I didn't take it seriously. It's like a slow burn, which starts gathering momentum and the fight goes bigger and before you know it, it has hit you," he added.

Last month, the Supreme Court quashed the proceedings in a case alleging copyright infringement against Sujoy over his movie Kahaani 2, and stated that the complaint only contained "bald and unsubstantiated allegations".

The complainant, Umesh Prasad Mehta, had written a script of film Sabak, and alleged Ghosh violated his copyright by committing theft of his script and made Kahaani 2, which was a sequel to his 2012 hit Kahaani, also starring Vidya.

Describing the prolonged legal battle as "scary", Sujoy said the situation became increasingly complex as the writer made multiple claims, including his alleged meetings with him, which he insists never happened.

"I hadn't met this gentleman and he said he met me and gave me a script and that I sent some thug to his place. I didn't know where all this is coming from. I had a hard time proving that I haven't met him," he recounted.

The filmmaker, also known for movies like Jhankar Beats and Badla, credited the SWA's Dispute Settlement Committee, which reviewed both scripts and found no connection between them, with helping his case.

He said he was initially unaware of the internal verdict, as the complainant had already filed a legal case against him.

"When I found about the SWA verdict, I gave a copy of it to the Supreme Court and when it went through the whole thing, thankfully, things were on my side and I was given a clean chit by the court. It is quite a nightmare; it went on for about ten years," Sujoy said.

"(But) there are many people suffering with you. The hardest part is to keep quiet, like you can't discuss the case with anybody in the fear that if it comes out in the open, especially in today's time when there's social media, we've to be careful as we are trialled by people who don't know what it is about," he said.

Sujoy urged fellow writers and filmmakers to treat such accusations with seriousness from the outset.

"The biggest mistake I made was that I took it very lightly; I didn't give the seriousness it deserved because I didn't do anything. So, there's no point thinking that you're innocent. Fighting an unknown person in Jharkhand is not easy," he said.