FIR against director in Haramkhor promo issue

The Pune police have registered a case against filmmaker Shlok Sharma following a complaint by Balbharati, Maharashtra’s textbook bureau, objecting to striking similarities between its logo and promotion scenes from Sharma’s upcoming film  Haramkhor .

Balbharati had accused Sharma and other crew members for allegedly tampering with the Balbharati logo and illegally using it for advertising and promotion of his film.

The Balbharati’s official logo for textbooks from Class I to VIII depicts a little girl studying with her brother. The logo’s striking verisimilitude is apparent in the film’s promotion scenes, allege Balbharati authorities.

“According to a complaint, we came to know that the filmmakers tampered with the logo using computer software and illegally used it for the promotion of this film [

Haramkhor ]. We then referred the matter to our legal cell which lodged a police complaint,” said Mr. C. Borkar, director, Balbharati.

Accordingly, the police have lodged an FIR against Sharma, designer Tarini D. and the film’s producer Ajay Yadav in this connection under sections 420 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and relevant sections of the IT Act and sections 51, 63, 63 (a) of the Copyrights Act.

The police said that no arrests had been made so far and that they were probing the affair.

Sharma had served as assistant director on critically acclaimed notables like Gangs of Wasseypur and Dev D.