Bollywood defends Hari Puttar
2008-09-01 08:00
Mumbai - The makers of Bollywood film Hari Puttar, which has prompted a lawsuit by Hollywood studio Warner Bros, say the flick has nothing in common with the Harry Potter movie series.
The Hollywood studio, which owns the rights to the boy wizard movies, has taken the Indian producers to court over the film's title, which it says sounds like Harry Potter.
"Our film bears no resemblance to the Hollywood film Harry Potter and it is a completely different story," said Munish Purii, chief operating officer of Mumbai-based production house Mirchi Movies Ltd, late on Friday.
The movie is titled Hari Puttar: A Comedy of Terrors.
"Our film has been in the making for quite some time and everyone knew about it," Purii told reporters in Mumbai, where the country's prolific Hindi-language film industry is based.
The film-makers have declined to reveal the plot of the Indian movie.
'Very common Indian name'
But US entertainment trade publication the Hollywood Report has said Hari Puttar is a comedy that centres on a 10-year-old Indian boy whose family moves to England.
"Hari is a very common Indian name and Puttar stands for son in English," the film's music director Aadesh Shrivastav said at the music release of the film earlier.
Hari Puttar, directed by Rajesh Bajaj and Lucky Kohli, is due to hit Indian movie screens on September 12.
The Indian movie stars Zain Khan as Hari, alongside longtime Bollywood actor Jackie Shroff.
The Hollywood Reporter quoted a Warner Bros spokesperson as saying the studio "recently commenced proceedings against parties involved in the production and distribution of a movie entitled Hari Puttar".
Warners' next Harry Potter instalment, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, is due for worldwide release next July. It is the sixth movie adaptation of JK Rowling's books about the young wizard Harry Potter.
The five Harry Potter films released so far have grossed more than $4.47bn worldwide since 2001, making it one of the most lucrative franchises of all time in terms of box-office.