Mumbai court grants interim stay on release of film ‘Mulk’

A session’s court here on Monday granted an interim stay on the release of Rishi Kapoor starrer film ‘Mulk’.

The film is scheduled to be released on August 3.

The court was hearing an application filed by one Vandana Punwani, who is embroiled in a property rent dues dispute with production and entertainment agency the Benaras Media Works Limited.

She has claimed that the Benaras Media Works Limited has links with the movie and hence the release of the film should be stayed till the dispute was resolved.

According to the application, the agency, in 2011, had taken on rent Punwani’s bungalow in the city and had wanted to convert it into an office space.

However, when it did not get the requisite permission from the civic body to convert the residential property into a commercial one, the company refused to pay rent to Punwani, the application alleged.

Following this, in 2016, Punwani approached the Dindoshi session’s court seeking to recover rent which she claims is around Rs 50 lakh.

Punwani, earlier this month, filed an application asking the court to stay the release of movie ‘Mulk’ till the dispute is resolved.

Additional sessions judge M H Shaikh on Monday granted an interim stay on the release of the movie and posted the application for further hearing on August 2.

“Punwani in her application has made false claims that the Benaras Media Works has links with Mulk director Anubhav Sinha. These are not true. We are yet to receive the court’s order staying the release. But on Sunday, we will either seek clarification from the same court or approach the Bombay High Court,” Sinha’s lawyer Vibhav Krishna said.

Sinha, while reacting to the development, said he has not been served any such order.

“If someone has mischievously misled the court and if the court has really passed such an order we shall move a petition to vacate the same. Logistically all arrangements are in place to release the film on August 3,” Sinha said.

The film stars Rishi Kapoor and Taapsee Pannu in key roles and centres around a Muslim family caught in a terror plot.