Copyright claims on

THE soon-to-be-released third instalment in the Housefull franchise, Housefull 3, seems to have run into trouble.

A police complaint has been filed against producer Sajid Nadiadwala and directors Sajid – Farhad, along with Ashvini Yardi and Narendra Khuswala for copyright infringement.

The complaint, filed by writer and lyricist Farooq Barelvi, contends that the script for Housefull 3 was originally written by him and that the makers of the film along with actor Akshay Kumar have cheated him.

In his complaint, Barelvi states that the script written by him, titled Tigdambaz, was registered with the Association of Writers in 2009, and was later narrated to Akshay Kumar, Narendra Khuswala and Ashwini Yardi who had expressed interest in developing the story into a film.

Following this, Barelvi claims that in 2014 Yardi had directed him to enter into a contract with the companies Bulls Entertainment, Baseline Films and Arjun Motion Pictures which were owned by Narendra Khushwala and to register the script.

After signing the contract, Barelvi states that he was paid a token amount of Rs51 000 (R11 800).

However, despite commencing work on the script and being paid an additional Rs10 000 there was no progress on the film from the makers and his repeated attempts to contact them proved futile. Barelvi’s complaint also alleges that the script for the soon-to-be- released Housefull 3 is based on the same literary work as his, amounting to copyright infringement.

Housefull 3, which is directed by Sajid – Farhad, hit the screens on Friday.