In March Ashish Kaul, the author of the book ‘Didda: The warrior queen of Kashmir’, had filed a copyright infringement case against Kangana Ranaut for announcing her upcoming film ‘Manikarnika Returns: The Legend of Didda’ which was based on his book. The writer has now made it clear that he will be opposing any relief to the actress in the copyright case. In return, Kangana and her brother Akshat Ranaut have filed a petition in the Bombay High Court to quash the FIR against them in the said case.Kaul’s lawyers Yogita Joshi and Amani Khan said, “Kangana Ranaut has filed for passport issuance and pleads that her passport is refused by authorities in view of the case by our client Ashish Kaul and another case both at the Bandra Magistrate Court.” They also added, “We have waived off notice and will be filing a detailed and comprehensive reply vehemently opposing any relief since she is yet to appear before the Police for a statement in this case and therefore investigation has been slow. ( sic)”
Kaul had alleged that he had sent an email about the storyline of his book ’ to Kangana, and she used some part of the story in a tweet while announcing her movie without his permission. After Kaul had filed a court case alleging copyright infringement of the story, the court directed the Khar police to file a case against Kangana. The actress is yet to appear before the Khar police in the case. Earlier this year, producer Kamal Jain took to his official Twitter handle to announce that he was collaborating with Kangana Ranaut for ‘Manikarnika Returns: The Legend of Didda’. The story is set around ‘Didda’, the brave queen of Kashmir who defeated Mehmood Ghaznavi twice. The first film in the Manikarnika franchise, Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi, based on the life of Rani Lakshmi Bai, starred Kangana Ranaut, Atul Kulkarni, Ankita Lokhande, Jisshu Sengupta, Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub and Vaibhav Tatwawaadi. Radha Krishna Jagarlamudi and Kangana jointly shared the direction credits.