Lock Upp: Hyderabad court stays release of Kangana Ranaut’s show

Legal troubles for Kangana Ranaut’s upcoming reality show Lock Upp’ has increased as its release has been stayed by a local court in Hyderabad. The City Civil Court of Hyderabad has issued an ad-interim injunction on releasing the upcoming show ‘Lock Upp’ hosted by Kangana Ranaut. The order was issued on February 23 after a hearing and checking the documents produced by petitioner Sanober Baig.

The petitioner, Sanober Baig had filed a plea with the court saying that the Kangana Ranaut, Ekta Kapoor’s reality TV show was plagiarised from his game show concept. Baig said that he is the sole right holder of the story and the script of the concept ‘The Jail’.

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The court also took on record the video clip of the trailer of ‘Lock Upp’ and concluded that it appears similar. Since the show was to be released on Sunday on OTT platform Alt Balaji and MX Player, the court has passed the order with an urgent notice prohibiting the exhibition of the show on any electronic media, social media, etc. 

The original concept of ‘The Jail’ is owned by Pride Media through its proprietor Sanober Baig and was written by Shaantanu Ray and Sheershak Anand and registered under the copyright act on March 7, 2018. During a presser held in Mumbai on Friday, Baif and his legal counsel informed that the concept was registered at the Film Writers Association.

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In his petition, the plaintiff Sanober Baig has described how the concept was developed also explained the concept in detail, giving the details of the money invested by him at various stages of concept development. Commenting on the situation Sanober said “When I saw the promo of the said show I was in shock. The show is not only similar to our concept but an absolute copy of the same. I could not believe that somebody could plagiarise the concept to such an extent. We have prayed to the court infringement of the copyright and have got a stay order.” 

If the infringement is proved, the defendant production houses will be liable for consequences under sections 51 and 52 of the Copyright Act. Sanober Baig further said, “I connected with the respective companies and requested them not to go ahead with the concept. But they turned a deaf ear and challenged that they have every right to stream as per the schedule. I had no option but to seek redressal from the judiciary. I have full faith in the judiciary and am sure that justice will be served.”