Ajay Devgn’s Maidaan release put on hold by Mysore court after plagiarism row

The release of Ajay Devgn’s Maidaan has been put on hold by Mysore court after allegations of plagiarism by Karnataka-based writer Anil Kumar. He has claimed that the Amit Ravindernath Sharma directorial is based on a script written by him. The film is produced by Zee Studios, Boney Kapoor, Arunava Joy Sengupta, and Akash Chawla.

Anil shared his side of the story on LinkedIn and wrote, “In 2010, I started writing the story and in 2018, I posted a poster about this, and I got in contact with ad director Sukhdas Suryavanshi through my LinkedIn post. He called me to Bombay (Mumbai) and asked me to get the script. I have the whole chat history.”

He added, “He told me that he’d make me meet Aamir Khan, but I couldn’t meet him for certain reasons. I gave him the story and registered the same with the Screen writers Association.” Sukhdas Suryawanshi served as the assistant director on Maidaan.

Anil mentioned that he was surprised when he saw the trailer of the film. He wrote, “Recently, I heard that a movie named Maidaan is getting released. I was surprised because even I have the same story. When I looked at the teaser and their statements, I got to know that it was my story. They have twisted the main story itself and made this movie. I named the story Paadakanduka."

He approached the sessions court in Mysore, and the court recently issued an order where it asked Zee Studios to put a hold on the release of the film. Boney Kapoor’s Bayview Projects issued a statement on social media saying, “We were not served any notice prior to the filing of the said suit or hearing of the matter. Additionally, the said order has been passed after the release of the film and therefore, any such order passed that retrains the release of the film is infructuous under law.”

They also added that they are filing an appeal against the order. “However, we are filing an appeal against the order before the Hon'ble High Court of Karnataka. We shall move the matter before the Hon'ble High Court for urgent reliefs in order to stay the operation of the said order," the statement said.

Meanwhile, the film’s tickets are available online in Mysore and Bangalore and its release has not been halted in the cities.