Writer approaches cops against makers of 'Housefull 3'

Mumbai: Writer-cum-lyricist Farooq Barelvi today lodged a police complaint accusing the directors and the producer of upcoming Bollywood movie "Housefull 3" of 'stealing' his script. The complaint was filed at Versova police station against the director duo Sajid-Farhad, producer Sajid Nadiadwala and others under the Copyright Act and relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code. Barelvi claimed that he had registered a script by the name of "Tigdambaz" with the Associations of Writers in 2009 and had narrated it to actor Akhshay Kumar and his make-up man Narendra Kushwala. He claimed that the script was liked by Kushwala who had promised to make a movie involving Akshay. "I find that 'Housefull3' is based on my literary work and same has been produced by Nadiadwala. Hence I accused them of stealing my script under the Copyright Act," Barelvi said. When contacted, a senior police officer attached to the police station said, "We have received a written complaint from Barelvi, but no case has been registered yet." Meanwhile, Nadiadwala said, "Nothing has come to me so far" when his comment was sought on the issue on the sidelines of a film function. The upcoming romantic comedy, which is the third instalment of Housefull, stars Akshay Kumar, Abhishek Bachchan, Riteish Deshmukh, Jacqueline Fernandez in lead roles.