An FIR has been lodged against actor Kangana Ranaut and her sister Rangoli Chandel for copyright infringement amounting to a criminal breach of trust by writer Ashish Kaul at Khar police station on Friday evening.

Ashish Kaul has claimed that he has the sole copyright of the biography on ‘Didda: The Warrior Queen’ and alleged that Kangana Ranaut has stolen his story. He said he was surprised to hear the announcement from Kangana Ranaut about the film. He even sent a notice to Kangana and producer Kamal Jain, however, did not receive any response for the same and therefore had to approach the court which directed the police to lodge a case.

Speaking about the case, Kaul said, “Today, I embark upon a new journey of my life – a journey against white-collar crime, against blatant and brazen infringement of my intellectual property and for justice. After trying my best to run across various police stations, I have placed before the Hon’ble Metropolitan Magistrate, Bandra, my application Under Section 156(3) of CrPC, 1973 seeking direction to the Mumbai Police to register FIR against the accused persons/entity namely Ms. Kangana Ranaut, Mr. Kamal Kumar Jain, Ms. Rangoli Chandel and Manikarnika Films Private Limited for infringement of the copyright which amounts to criminal breach of trust, cheating, cheating with knowledge that wrongful loss may ensue to the person whose interest offender is bound to protect as well as cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property, punishable under Section 406, 415, 418, 34, 120 B And 420 of the Indian Penal Code read with Section 51, 63, 63A and other provision of The Copyright Act, 1957 AND Section 65 of the Information Technology Act, 2000.”

He further added, “After a tumultuous fortnight of coming to terms that people in power, people with might and money can steamroll the rights of content creators by misrepresenting and manipulating the letter and spirit of the law. This act involves taking a common citizen for granted who will not be easily entertained or helped by the police, added to it the reputation of the alleged popular public figure against whom a common citizen is seeking help from the police! Alas, their perception is nothing but the truth given the number of times this perception has been strengthened by the unhelpful attitude of law enforcement in such cases and I mean such typical cases where a commoner decides to raise his voice against the arm twisting, morale breaking and destructive deeds pursued by a public figure.”

Kaul said that this fight is no longer to resolve a violation of his rights but a fight to seek an answer to a question for every content creator who comes to this city with talent, sweat on their brows and belief in the slogan of “Aatmanirbharta”. The outcome of this fight will determine if an ordinary citizen, a lonely ordinary citizen who can’t afford high profile lawyers and are scared of walking into a police station.”

Kangana has planned to direct ‘Manikarnika Returns: The Legend of Didda’ which will be produced by Kamal Jain who also backed the first installment, ‘Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi’.