Bombay High Court Justice K. R. Shriram, while permitting the movie Rangoon to be released as scheduled on February 24, 2017, has directed filmmaker Vishal Bhardwaj to deposit two crore rupees as guarantee until the final disposal of a copyright suit filed by Roy Wadia, managing director of Wadia Movietone (WM). Roy alleged that a character in Rangoon played by Bollywood
actress Kangana Ranaut is based on that of Fearless Nadia, the lead in WM’s movie Hunterwali. Mary Evans, better known as Fearless Nadia, who essayed the role of the protagonist in that 1935 movie starred in several WM films and later married producer Homi Wadia. WM was established by Homi in 1933 with brother Jamshed (JBH). Roy is a grandson of JBH.
Roy has alleged that in Rangoon, Ranaut’s character "is inspired by Fearless Nadia, right down to the use of her catch phrase, ‘Bloody hell!’” according to a report in Mid Day (MD) dated February 17, 2016. The report states that in 2008, WM got into an agreement with a German firm that could use all copyrighted material to make a movie on Evans, after negotiations for a movie on her with Ronnie Screwvala’s UTV had failed. The makers of Rangoon, co-starring Saif Ali Khan and Shahid Kapoor, have "carried out a breach of trust,” Roy was quoted in the report.
"Allegations of copyright violation... do not hold water as Nadia was a real person and a historical figure,” Bhardwaj told MD of February 22, 2017. He said there cannot be copyright claims to a historical event or person. Trailers of Bharadwaj’s movie have shown Khan playing the role of a fictional movie mogul, Rusi Billimoria.
Farrokh Jijina