By Piyush M Padwale
The copyright dispute surrounding the upcoming Marathi film Khashaba has entered a new procedural stage, with the Pune Civil Court scheduled to hear an amendment application on August 13 in the litigation between sports writer and author Sanjay Dudhane and filmmaker Nagraj Manjule.
According to Dudhane, the matter first came up before a new judge on July 4, when the court adjourned the hearing to July 10. He said the July 10 hearing did not take place. When the matter came up again on July 30, the court first took up a third-party application before listing the amendment application for hearing on August 13.
The proposed amendment concerns actor Riteish Deshmukh, who had announced plans in 2013 to produce a biopic on Olympian Khashaba Jadhav before that project did not materialise and the current film was later taken forward by Manjule.
“The hearing scheduled on July 10 did not happen. On July 30, the court took up the third-party application and fixed August 13 for hearing the amendment application,” Dudhane said.
The dispute stems from a copyright suit filed by Dudhane on October 10, 2024, against Nagraj Manjule, producer Jyoti Deshpande, Jio Studios, and Aatpat Productions. In the suit, Dudhane alleged that Khashaba, based on the life of Indian freestyle wrestler and 1952 Helsinki Olympics bronze medallist Khashaba Jadhav, uses material from his book Olympicveer Khashaba Jadhav without his consent or due credit.
The plaint also referred to a video of the film’s first-day shoot released on December 6, 2023, which Dudhane contended formed part of the material supporting his copyright claim.
At the first hearing on October 16, 2024, the Pune Civil Court declined Dudhane’s plea for ad-interim relief while directing that show-cause notices be issued to the defendants.
The court observed that there was insufficient material at that stage to conclude that the film was directly based on Dudhane’s book, leaving the issue to be decided during the course of the litigation.
During the July 4 hearing, Dudhane sought the appointment of a judicial commission to examine the completed film and compare it with his book before its release, contending that the film’s teaser contained scenes corresponding to passages in his work.
According to Dudhane, the application was moved after Advocate Ramkrishna Kulkarni, appearing for Manjule, informed the court that the film would not be released before July.
“We had filed a written affidavit stating that the five scenes match the book completely. We have even specified which pages of the book they match,” Dudhane said.
Dudhane said he has placed 19 pieces of evidence before the court, including comparisons between scenes from the teaser and passages from his book, references contained in the respondents’ affidavit filed in the ₹5 crore defamation suit, and documents relating to an agreement involving Ranjit Jadhav, son of Khashaba Jadhav.
He further alleged that the teaser depicts scenes involving Khashaba Jadhav’s interactions with the then Chief Minister of Maharashtra, his principal, British officers, Manikrao of Baroda, the alleged injustice towards Punjabi wrestlers, wrestling and mallakhamb sequences, and other episodes that he claims correspond to passages in his book. These allegations form part of the pending copyright suit and are yet to be adjudicated by the court.
Parallel to the copyright suit, Manjule has filed a ₹5 crore defamation suit against Dudhane. While that case remains pending, Dudhane has relied on documents filed in those proceedings to support his copyright claims. The film is currently scheduled for a theatrical release on January 1, 2027. Manjule has not publicly commented on Dudhane’s allegation that Khashaba is based on his book and continues to contest the matter through the pending defamation proceedings. Both matters, along with the amendment application, remain pending before the Pune Civil Court.
Advocate Ramkrishna Kulkarni, counsel for Nagraj Manjule, and representatives of Jio Studios declined to comment on the matter.