Ashish Kaul on FIR against Kangana: ‘Narrative of Didda as nationalist written by only me’

By Yashika Mathur Mumbai, March 13 : Ashish Kaul, author of the book “Didda: The Warrior Queen Of Kashmir”, who has filed an FIR against actress Kangana Ranaut for announcing the film “Manikarnika Returns: The Legend Of Didda” without his approval, says the narrative of the queen being a nationalist who nurtured an undivided India has been written solely by him.
Kaul filed his First Information Report at Khar station for the violation of copyright Act. His application has been placed under Section 156(3) of CrPC, 197. The case has been filed against Kangana, her sister Rangoli Chandel, Kamal Kumar Jain and Manikarnika Films Private Limited on Friday.
Talking exclusively to IANS, Kaul said: “Copyright Act protects exclusivity. This is a non-bailable offence, which amounts to three years of jail term as recent High Court order. Besides my book, there is only one book in the world that mentions Didda. That 3,000-page book, ‘Rajataringi’, only has two pages on Didda where they talk about her sexual life, and how she killed her son and infant grandsons. The narrative of her being a nationalist who nurtured the undivided India has been written by only me. “ On how his work reached Kangana, the author said: “I was in talks with various production houses for my book to be made into a film, which I could direct. The potential financer and distributor Mr. Uttam Maheshwari, who had come on board, sent my docket to Kangana. It had my script, characterisation, possible cast — everything.” “For the last three years, all I have done is dream about this film and worked towards it. Now I am in major loss because I was already in talks with production houses,” Kaul added.
He revealed that he had sent a mail to Kangana informing her of the copyright violation but was met with a holding response that they would reply to his mail.