Mumbai, Sept. 2 (PTI): Bombay High Court today refused to stay the release of Zanjeer, a remake of the Amitabh Bachchan-starrer of the same name, in a setback to Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar, the script writers of the 1973 film.

Salim and Javed had filed a suit claiming they had copyrights over the script, story and dialogues of the 1973 film and demanded Rs 6 crore as compensation from the kin of Prakash Mehra for remaking the film. Mehra had also directed and produced the original.

The duo contented they had allowed Mehra to produce the film based on their script just once. Hence, a remake could not be produced without their permission.

However, Justice S.J. Kathawala did not grant any interim relief by staying the release of the film, slated to hit screens on Friday. He cited two grounds for refusing interim relief. One was the delay made by the plaintiffs (Salim and Javed) in giving defendants legal notice and filing the suit against them. The other was that the plaintiffs were demanding monetary compensation.

Soon after the verdict, the counsel for the plaintiffs, Ravi Kadam, made an oral plea before a division bench headed by Justice D.Y. Chandrachud who asked him to file a written plea and posted the matter for hearing tomorrow.

Justice Kathawala said: “In this case, the plaintiffs have not only delayed issuing of the legal notice as well as filing of the suit against the defendants but have themselves asserted that a sum of Rs 6 crore would be a fair and reasonable monetary compensation”.