The jacket cover with two video CD’s inside has neatly embossed, ‘Akbar Khan’s Taj Mahal — An Eternal Love Story’, along with pictures of the principal cast.
A usual case of piracy, except the mentioned film getting retailed apparently across the country, is not fully shot yet, is expected to open in theatres in May next year.
And as you insert the given CDs on your player, it actually plays a B movie, albeit with a similar title, Robin Khosla’s Taj Mahal — A Monument of Love .
An expected cause for worry one should assume for director Khan who has reportedly invested about Rs 80 crore on his mega project.
As he puts it, “It’s an act of sabotage. They have downloaded pictures from my official website and pasted them on to the VCDs and its jacket. This is a serious offence and I am not sure who are involved in this, I just hope this is only a handiwork of lay pirates.�
Khan had lodged a formal complaint with police authorities recently, which he says, has resulted in raids at grey market outlets at Surat, Ahmedabad and Bangalore.
“Two people have been arrested at Bangalore and Ahmedabad and so far 5,000 copies of the pirated DVD’s have been seized. Surely more copies shall be confiscated in the near future.�
Earlier in the year, the makers of the film Boom, pirated VCD copies of which were available in the market before its release had filed a similar case. What makes this scenario peculiar however is that the pirated DVD’s show a rival movie of the same name.
Khan doesn’t openly accuse the makers of Khosla’s Taj Mahal of willfully committing this act, but reiterates, “I just hope it’s not them. During their film’s release, they had used my title ‘An Eternal Love Story’ on top, in bold, in the publicity material to confuse the public.�
Khan’s Taj Mahal stars newcomers Sonya Jehan (yesteryear actress-singer Noor Jehan’s grand daughter) and model Zulfikar Sayed in the title roles, besides Manisha Koirala, Kabir Bedi and Arbaaz Khan.
Other celluloid odes to Taj Mahals reportedly in the making are the Warner produced Hollywood production penned by Kamran Pasha, and Bharat Bala’s IMAX movie with Aishwarya Rai in the lead role.
