Randeep Hooda reacts to co-producers' contention over Swatantrya Veer Savarkar

Randeep Hooda is all set to make his directorial debut with Swatantrya Veer Savarkar, based on the life of Indian politician Veer Savarkar. In addition to being the director of the film, he is playing the lead role in the movie and also producing the project. Recently, the actor-director published notices in trade publications stating that he is the exclusive owner of the film's intellectual property rights, which was disputed by the co-producers of the film, Anand Pandit and Sandeep Singh. Now, Randeep’s legal representatives have released a statement regarding this issue. 

2 things you need to know

• Swatantrya Veer Savarkar is the biopic of politician, activist, and writer Veer Savarkar. 
• The film’s teaser was unveiled earlier in May. 

Randeep Hooda responds to dispute claim 

Reacting to the producers' claim, legal consultants of Randeep Hooda released a statement and said, "Randeep Hooda under his banner Randeep Hooda Films has successfully written, produced -directed / completed the film based on Veer Savarkar despite all odds by facing various challenges coming his way including financial, mental and physical. He with his utmost dedication, perseverance and aim of paying respect to the real hero i.e. main character of the film, has thwarted obstructions created by other entities bent upon disrupting the making of the film, also attempting to infringe on his legal rights.”

The statement emphasised on the actor’s efforts to embody the character of Veer Savarkar. “He has faced grave agony and losses including risk to his life as one would be able to see unprecedented weight loss he undertook and consequent the risk of life so as to get in and fit appropriately in the main character of the film i.e. Veer Savarkar and attempt to do complete justice to the role he played,” read the statement. 

(Randeep Hooda as Veer Savarkar in his upcoming film | Image: Instagram)

It concluded with, “He is the sole owner of all the intellectual property rights of the said film and legally speaking on a strong footing with all his legal options open to ensure the timely release of the film which we are sure would be awaited keenly by public to get the real feel of one of our freedom struggle’s biggest hero of the times."

Tiff over intellectual property of Swatantrya Veer Savarkar

Anand and Sandeep had claimed that they had been hired to create a movie based on the real life of the late Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, with a script by Utkarsh Naithani and a film by Mahesh Manjrekar. 'Screenwriters Association, Mumbai' (SWA) records show that Sandeep is the author of the plot, idea, and underlying works for the aforementioned movie.

According to them, Randeep had been contracted to join the cast as an actor, but once Mahesh left the picture, the actor approached them about directing the picture as well. The producers assert that the director had complete access to the film's material, but to their astonishment, he removed all of it from the storage without their knowledge and hasn't brought it back despite repeated requests.