CELEBRATION TIME: A moment of festive fun in Poran Jai Joliya Re

Namastey London has kissed and made up with Poran Jai Joliya Re for a fee of Rs 75 lakh and promise of acknowledgement, allowing the Tollywood copy of the Bollywood hit to play on in cinemas.

Shree Venkatesh Films, accused of plagiarism, reached an out-of-court settlement with Namastey London producer Vipul Shah on Friday, three days after a division bench of Calcutta High Court had ordered that the Bengali film be pulled off screens.

“We have reached a settlement by which they can play the film at the theatres but the new prints should have the title card ‘Based on Namastey London, a film by Vipul Amrutlal Shah’. All DVD and satellite prints should also have the card,” Shah told Metro.

“The settlement is based on mutual understanding. There won’t be any credit in the existing prints, but we will give him credit in the next set of prints and on DVDs,” clarified Mahendra Soni of Shree Venkatesh Films.

Poran Jai, made with a budget of Rs 2 crore and released on July 24, has been enjoying a strong run at the box office. But the collection money has been locked away in a nationalised bank by two court-appointed officers as punishment for plagiarism.

This can now be unlocked by the producers of Poran Jai and used to cough up the settlement amount. “The amount is in line with the fees that producers pay to buy the rights to remake a film. We haven’t charged them extra for damages because that was never the intention,” said Shah.

Poran Jai, starring Dev and Subhashree, is almost a frame-by-frame copy of the Akshay Kumar-Katrina Kaif success story of 2007.

For an industry starved of hits, the ban on Poran Jai would have hit where it hurts. “I knew an out-of-court settlement would take place.... This week, I will run Angshumaner Chhobi for the noon show with Poran Jai for the rest of the three shows,” said Dipen Mitra of Mitra cinema.

Fans of Dev, billed as the next big thing, went into celebration mode. “It’s great that an understanding has been reached. Dev is our ‘boss’ and his film will have a diamond jubilee,” said Apu Mondal of the Dev Fans Association.