Mirzapur 2 Producers Issue Apology To Insulted Writer …But Is It Enough?

 The most  absurd  and  unreasonable  thing that a scriptwriter can  do is use  the names of  books and movies as props in an inappropriate  context.  Uttar Pradesh’s  81-year old  popular Hindi novelist  Surendra Mohan  Pathak  was  shocked when he  saw his bestselling crime novel Dhabba  in the disappointingly slapdash sequel  to the webseries  Mirzapur.

 Neither  the producers Ritesh Sidwani  and Farhan Akhtar  nor the Mirzapur writers  had approached  Pathak before  using his  novel in their series.

This in itself  is a serious copyright infringement . But what was to follow was  worse. Actor Khulbushan Kharbanda  was  seen reading the novel Dhabba. But the content, as  voiced in a  voiceover was  extremely erotic  and according to  Surendra  Mohan Pathak  , pornographic.

“I had written none of what  was attributed to me  by the voiceover in Dhabba. Imagine a generation that is  not familiar with my work  seeing and hearing what  is  credited to me Mirzapur.!They  will think I am a sleaze writer,”  says  Pathak.

And he’s right.

 Imagine if  the audience  enters to see Ritesh Sidhwani and Farhan Akhtar’s Dil Chahta Hai when suddenly a scene  from Kya Kool Hain  Hum begins  to play. How would they feel?

It is  not only wrong to infringe  on the creative  domain   of  any artiste,  it is a criminal offence to  use  anyone’s creative output out of context. What a shame  that enlighted  producers  like Sidhwani and Akhtar don’t know the  basic  rules  of generating  content.

Excel Entertainment  has  issued an apology and has promised  to  rectify the  monstrous error in three weeks.

Three weeks? When the entire world would have already seen what’s been done  to  the  name and reputation of a well-known  writer? Whom are they kidding?