Producers find it tough to promote 'Hari-puttar'

Mumbai, Sep 11 (IANS) Even as Delhi High Court has kept the Warner Bros' petition for injunction against Mirchi Movies' forthcoming film "Hari Puttar - A Comedy of Terrors" pending, the production house is finding it hard to get the movie promoted on the popular TV channels.

"Hari Puttar - A Comedy of Terrors" is scheduled for Sep 19 release.

Being a movie essentially meant to entertain children, the production banner wanted to have it promoted across all kids channels.

The two popular networks, Pogo and Cartoon Network, have, however, refused to run the movie's promotional clips. Both the channels belong to Time-Warner group of companies.

Warner Bros filed the case against the movie as the title "Hari Puttar" is similar to "Harry Potter", Warner's franchise of J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter" book series, and, therefore, borders on infringement of its intellectual property rights.

But Mirchi Movies contended that 'Hari puttar' is an Indian name, meaning god's son.

"Besides, the story of the film has no resemblance to Warner's 'Harry Potter' franchise," said Munish Puri, CEO of Mirchi Movies.

Warner Bros even dismissed the suggestion that "Hari Puttar - A Comedy of Terrors" display a disclaimer before the start of the movie, saying that it has no resemblance to "Harry Potter" franchise.

The Hollywood studio is adamant to stall the scheduled release of the movie even though its next movie of the "Harry Potter" franchise, "Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince," is delayed until next summer. It was expected to be released on Nov 29.

"Hari Puttar - A Comedy of Terrors," directed by Lucky Kohli and Rajesh Bajaj, has Sarika, Jackie Shroff, Zain Khan, Saurabh Shukla and Lilette Dubey in the cast.

Though the movie's plot, admittedly, is not similar to any book of Rowling's Potter series, it is alleged that the story is strikingly similar to 20th Century Fox's 1990 production "Home Alone".

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Hari Puttar - A Comedy of Terrors