Hindi novelist threatens legal action against 'Mirzapur 2'
What's the story
Popular writer of Hindi crime fiction, Surendra Mohan Pathak, has alleged that his novel Dhabba was "mischievously misrepresented" in the Amazon Prime Video series Mirzapur 2. He said that the show attempted to tarnish his image and put him in a bad light. The writers of the show have reportedly promised to remove the controversial part. Here are more details on this.
Details
The controversial scene is from third episode of the show
During the controversial sequence, the character of Satyanand Tripathi, played by actor Kulbhushan Kharbanda, is shown reading Pathak's book. The corresponding, voice-over, however, is not taken from the novel. The said voice-over "has no bearing with the original text of Dhabba and also there is no character named Baldev Raj in the said novel," the writer said in his letter to the show's makers.
Details
He also alleged violation of the Copyright Act
Pathak also mentioned that it is a violation of the Copyright Act. "What is being read (during the said scene) is sheer pornography, the undersigned cannot even dream of writing, supposedly to titillate the viewers (sic)," he said. "The sequence defames me as an author and puts me in bad light as a well-known mystery writer which I am since...decades (sic)," he added.
Information
Pathak demanded immediate removal of the sequence
Pathak said that if the sequence was not immediately removed, he would take legal action. For the unversed, Mirzapur 2 was released on Amazon Prime Video on October 22 and opened to mixed reviews. The show stars Pankaj Tripathi, Ali Fazal, Divyenndu Sharmaa, Shweta Tripathi Sharma, Harshita Gaur, Rasika Dugal, Rajesh Tailang, Sheeba Chadha, Anjum Sharma, Vijay Varma, among others.
Statement
Writers of the show apologized, said used novel as prop
Pathak has said that he received a call from the writers of the show, promising that the voice-over will be taken down. "They have promised me to remove the voice-over and issue an apology but they are yet to do that. The writers said they are an admirer of my work so I told them they should not have done this," he told PTI.
Twitter Post
You can read Pathak's letter here
Letter to the makers of #Mirzapur2 for misrepresentation of novel "DHABBA". @excelmovies @PrimeVideoIN @PrimeVideo @ritesh_sid @FarOutAkhtar @PuneetKrishna @krnx @gurmmeet #Mirzapur2 #MirzapurOnPrime pic.twitter.com/6g66wleUso
— SurenderMohan Pathak (@SurenderMPathak) October 27, 2020