Pahlaj Nihalani's Julie 2 freed from legal battles

The erotic thriller Julie 2, which was caught in a legal battle, will now hit the screens on November 24, says producer Pahlaj Nihalani, who is livid over the financial losses he and his director Deepak Shivdasani had to suffer due to the copyright case lodged against their film by producer NR Pachisia.

Nihalani and his director had to pay a compensatory amount to be able to release the film. "What we gave him was even less than the lawyer's fees. But what Pachisia has taken away is our faith in people from our own fraternity," says Nihalani. 

The former CBFC chief adds that though Pachisia knows what producers have to go through when their films are stalled at the last moment, he still went ahead and "filed a bogus case against our film claiming Julie 2 infringed on the copyrights of the film Julie, which he had produced in 2004. We kept shouting and vowing that Julie 2 had nothing to do with his film." 

Julie 2 is now finally freed of legal obstacles and ready for release. "We had to postpone the release thrice. We are now releasing on November 24. But we want action taken against all litigants who try to stop a film's release at the last minute. This is done only to make quick money or gain instant publicity," he says.

The film now comes up against the Kapil Sharma-starrer Firangi, which is also to be released on the same day. Nihalani isn't perturbed. "Kapil has the laughs; Julie 2 has the oomph."