November 8, 2010 : With only days left for Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Guzaarish to hit the theaters it seems that the movie has run into a bit of a copyright storm of its own. As we all know by now the movie deals with the moral and emotional implications of euthanasia and mercy killing. The movie stars Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan in the lead roles.
Recently a noted novelist Dayanand Raajan accused the writer of Guzaarish for lifting the core theme of his new book for the plot of the movie. Dayanand said that Guzaarish has a striking similarity to the plot line and characters of his movie and it seems like a complete rip off. Dayanand also said that he read his new novel to some Bollywood personalities and the writer of Guzaarish must have lifted his idea through a common friend.
The makers of Guzaarish have been served with a seven-day notice period after which Dayanand will go to court to get a stay order on the film. Just like Dayanand’s unpublished novel, in Guzaarish too, the hero gets into an accident and becomes immobilized for the rest of his life. Both the film and novel are set in the backdrop of Goa with Christianity as a predominant theme. While in Guzaarish, the hero is a famous magician, in the novel he is a popular dancer.
Dayanand also said that in his novel the story is told through a series of flashbacks which has an uncanny resemblance to Guzaarish. Let us hope that the plagiarism conflict gets resolved quickly.
