Film producer, son, company awarded RM100,00 damages

KUALA LUMPUR: Film producer Datuk Yusof Haslam, his actor-director son Syamsul and their company Skop Production Sdn Bhd were awarded RM100,000 in damages after they were successful in their countersuit against a novelist pertaining to the film “Bohsia: Jangan Pilih Jalan Hitam.”

High Court Judge Datin Azizah Nawawi yesterday ruled in their favour against Elias Idris, 64, the author of the novel “Aku Bohsia”, who had filed the original suit on Nov 24, 2014, claiming that the respondents had infringed his copyrights.

The court also ordered Elias to pay RM40,000 in costs to the three defendants.

Skop Production Sdn Bhd had released the movie in 2009.

In her judgment, Azizah had held that the references ‘bohsia’ (loose young girls) and ‘mat rempit’ (daredevil motorcycle riders) are common place in Malaysian society and cannot form the basis of a comparison between the novel and the movie.

“I also agree with the defendants that the ideas of the lives of ‘bohsia’ and ‘mat rempit’ are not protected under the Copyright Act 1987 and there can be no infringement of the same,” she said.

Azizah also contended that the words written by Elias in two articles that were uploaded on the Internet on Nov 7 and 16, 2014 concerning the movie “Bohsia: Jangan Pilih Jalan Hitam” were libellious.

“The articles impute that the defendants lack integrity and conducted themselves dishonourably by copying the novel into their film. This would lower the defendants in the estimation of members of the society,” the judge said.

Elias had written the novel in 1995 under the pen name of Anne Natasha Nita.

The respondents had filed the countersuit on Nov 16, 2014 claiming the two articles defamed not only them but the local film industry.

Yusof, when met outside the court, said he was thankful that their reputation and that of their company had been cleared.

“I tried to settle this out of court by giving a chance to the plaintiff to withdraw his suit but he was stubborn. We were not afraid because we had done no wrong,” he said.

Syamsul said he was thankful to Allah that this episode was over and was looking forward to the premiere of his latest movie ‘Munafik’ on Feb 18.

The plaintiff was represented by counsel K. Periasamy while the defendants by lawyers Aizul Rohan Anuar and Saiful Dzulhelmi Zulkifli.

The plaintiff and three other witnesses had testified in the two-day trial on Oct 19 and 20 last year while only Syamsul testified on behalf of the defendants. - Bernama