Mumbai: The popular music show, The Dewarists was hitting all the right notes, at least uptil now. However, the Delhi High Court has issued a notice to Star India and producers Babble Fish, alleging copyright infringement by the channel.
The show was apparently originally conceptualised by writer and musician Manish Kumar, who has slapped a case on the channel through Open Mind (the company which planned to produce the show).
Says Alpana Borpatra from Open Mind, "This show was first conceptualised in 2007 and was called Music India. We submitted the idea to Channel V in 2010. We subsequently submitted a pilot episode to them."
However, they claim that post this, the channel stopped interactions with them, till Manish Kumar and the company came across the first promo of Dewarists in June 2011.
Adds Alpana, "The entire format of the show is the same and Star claims it's an original series. When we came across the promo we were very surprised."
However, the production company apparently had a few meetings where the channel agreed to comply with their demand for credit within the show.
However, after a few episodes, the channel eventually told them that the similarities were purely aesthetic. Says Star COO Uday Shankar, "They have been talking about the show for a while, but it is a purely bogus allegation. It has no substance and I don't want to give it any merit by commenting further."
The Delhi High Court has given Star India ten days to revert and has also warned them that airing the show, from now on, would be at their own risk.
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