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[Dhil]

Madhur Bhandarkar can heave a sigh of relief as a Delhi court has rejected author Seema Seth's plea against the filmmaker. Seema had accused Bhandarkar, writer Ajay Monga and producer Ronnie Screvwala (UTV) of plagiarism saying that their 2008 film Fashion was based on her book El Dorado. The book was incidentally published 3 months before Fashion's release in October 2008.

Seth requested the court to book Bhandarkar for violation of the Copyright Act, as the idea of the story had been taken from the book without her permission. However, Additional Chief Magistrate Sanjay Sharma dismissed the plea saying there cannot be a copyright in an idea or plot, subject matter, themes or legendary facts.

The next hearing is scheduled to take place on August 8 and Seema has been asked to bring substantial evidence to validate her claims.