HC stays use of 'Lawaris' song in 'Housefull' after Monday

Justice Nadira Patherya this morning restrained producer Sajid Nadiadwala in an interim order from the cinematic use of the Kalyanji-Anandji number in the new film, where it has been remixed with another song 'Dhanno'.

Justice Patherya then turned down a plea by Nadiadwala's counsel to stay operation of the order for moving an appeal before a higher bench.

But the counsel moved the court again in the afternoon hours and pleaded that with the huge number of prints having already been sent to cinema houses all over the country and abroad, it was not possible to delete the song from each today itself.
Justice Patherya then allowed a stay of operation of the interim injunction on cinematic use of the song in the film 'Housefull' till Monday.

The interim injunction was given till June 30 by the court.
Anandji and the heirs of music directors Kalyanji had filed a suit before the High Court claiming that the producers of 'Housefull' had used the song 'Apne to jayse tayse, thodi aise ya oyse' without the copyright.

Heirs of Prakash Mehra, producer of 'Lawaris', also filed a separate suit before the court claiming that the song was written by the late Mehra and the right to the lyrics remained with them.

After hearing the two songs, which had similarities prima facie, Justice Patherya ordered the injunction restraining the defendants from using the number till June 30.
Justice Patherya directed the parties to file affidavits in two weeks and the matter would be heard again after that.

Nadiadwala's counsel had earlier stated that they had bought the rights from music company Saregama India Ltd which claimed to have the rights to the songs of the 1981 film.

'Lawaris' was a blockbuster and the song, sung by Kishore Kumar, continues to be popular till today.