The Netflix film original “The White Tiger” featuring Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Rajkummar Rao, and Adarsh Gourav dropped on the streaming space on January 21. Hours before the arrival of the film, makers of the film seem to have landed in copyright tussle. Makers Sonia Mudbhatkal and John Hart lodged a copyright encroachment suit in the Delhi High Court against the film’s maker Mukul Deora, his charted accountant Sharad Seksaria and Netflix.
The complainants asserted that they held the adaptation rights of Aravind Adiga’s epic on which the film is based. Days after the arrival of the movie, the duo have approached Enforcement Directorate, charging that Deora utilized a check from non-operating Swiss bank, BSI, for “suspicious transactions for the undertaking”.
The controversy around the film was quite evident ever since the first poster was out. Earlier, Priyanka Chopra had been on the receiving when she shared the upcoming film ‘The White Tiger’ on social media, without mentioning novel author Aravind Adiga.
Sources revealed, Hart and Mudbhatkal urged the ED for a probe into the transactions. They also alleged that Netflix is well versed with Mukul’s numerous shell companies. However, Deora dispelled such claims and said there was no illegal act from their end.
Reportedly, Hart who has bankrolled films like ‘Revolutionary Road and Boys Dont Cry’ acquired the adaptation rights from the author on March 4, 2009. Nevertheless, he alleges that Deora sabotaged their original rights.