Now plagiarism charges against OSO makers

The family of iconic filmmaker Bimal Roy has lodged a formal complaint with the Film Writers Association saying the climax of Farah Khan's "Om Shanti Om" was lifted from Roy's classic "Madhumati".

Rinki Roy Bhattacharya, the eldest daughter of the filmmaker, has dashed a letter against the movie released last year.

"The climax from the film (OSO) is similar to the scene from "Madhumati". I have formally made the protest about the climax being lifted by the makers of 'Om Shanti Om'," Bhattacharya told reporters during the ongoing International Film Festival of India (IFFI) 2008 in Panaji.

"It's a genuine complaint. Even the OSO film reviews mentioned that the parts from the film are from 'Karz' and 'Madhumati'. But the filmmakers have not given the credit to 'Madhumati'," she pointed out.

"Madhumati", starring Dilip Kumar and Vaijayantimala, was produced in 1958 and written by Ritwik Ghatak. It had bagged Filmfare's best movie award in 1959. Bhattacharya, chairperson of Bimal Roy Memorial and Film Society, said she would not slap a legal case against filmmakers.

"It's not like slapping a case. I will protest on whatever is unjust," she commented. On asked why such a delay to file a case, she conceded that she had no reply for the question.

OSO was in trouble earlier when veteran actor Manoj Kumar protested against few of the scenes in the flick which he felt had ridiculed him.

A Mumbai civil court had ordered that OSO would be aired on television only after deleting the objectionable scenes. In yet another tussle with OSO, a film writer Ajay Monga had claimed that the movie is a copy of his script.