(Jyoti Kapoor is a Mumbai based screenwriter who recently won a case of plagiarism against filmmaker Kunal Kohli in the Supreme Court. Kapoor fought a legal battle for almost a year involving the Film Writers Association, the High Court and finally the Supreme Court. Kohli has been asked to settle the case by paying Rs 25 lakhs to Kapoor and also giving her a story credit in his upcoming film ‘Phir Se’.)

I was in a meeting with the Creative Head of one of the top production houses of our industry recently. I was totally overwhelmed about finally getting a chance to get that meeting after having waited for almost a decade.

So I narrate two stories of mine, the gentleman likes them and asks me to share them with him. I happily agree to this, trying to contain my excitement. I have waited so long for this!

“But you have to sign a release form”, he says. “You know, which says that if we are already working on something that is similar to what you are sharing, you cannot sue us in the future” (or something to that effect). The grim look on my face tells him that I am perhaps not comfortable signing any such document. “Arre it’s okay. It’s just a formality, only to make sure that some loony doesn’t file a case against us”. I can’t stop smiling. “Arre there are all kinds of loonies out there, nothing personal against you”, he adds trying to make me comfortable.

I pause, take a quick call on whether to make the grand revelation or not and I decide to go with the full and final disclosure. “You do know you’re talking to one of those loonies?” I ask him.

“Arre baba, I was talking about those complaining types, nothing against you baba,” he reiterates with a rather genuine smile. I figure he is unaware of the copyright case I have been fighting and made that remark very innocently. And so I spill the beans. Tell him about my ongoing case that I have been fighting against a famous director who stole my script. And there’s silence! That uncomfortable, ghostly silence!