Ram Gopal Varma’s Officer seems to be encountering one hitch after another. A few days after Bombay High Court’s diktat to stall the film’s release, comes yet another damning copying allegation. author P Jaya Kumar, who had previously accused RGV of theft his initiative for God Sex and Truth and not charitable him writing credit for Sarkar 3, has supposed that RGV has ‘stolen’ his script yet again! That’s not all, he has slapped a lawful notice on the director Rgv as well. In an interview with Hyderabad Times, Jaya Kumar talks about why he is in an apparently endless battle with RGV, who was formerly his mentor. These are the answers Jaya Kumar has given for the interview which was done recently…

Q. The movie ‘Officer’ was announced long ago. Why did you wait for so long to speak up?

I was hoping all along that it’s a different film that RGV was talking about. However, the teaser regrettably confirmed that he had indeed lifted my story yet again, without giving me credit or recompense. After the teaser released, I tried to move towards both RGV and the producers in person, via text and email. However, none of them responded. Then the trailer was released, and it inveterate that the material is all mine. That’s when I decided to take legal action. According to the film writer’s association, if six scenes are similar, then you can file a court case. I have sent legal notices to RGV, Nagarjuna and the producers claiming compensation to the tune of `1 cr. I’ve even received acknowledgment that RGV has received it.

Q. So, you’re saying that ‘Officer’ was actually written by you. You have even uploaded a copy of what you claim is the original script. If that’s true, how did it land up with RGV?

When I first met him in 2015, I was pursuing film studies in JNU, Delhi. Officer was the first of the nine scripts I had written while functioning with him. The idea I discussed with him was that of a SIT officer who becomes corrupt; the absurdity of who will investigate the police then was the key point. He liked my story and pressed me to first develop it into a 13-episode web series. After I worked on it for two months, he wanted it distorted into a film!

Q. Why did you quit working with RGV?

After the release of Sarkar 3, I quit because I felt like a ‘lab rat’. RGV doesn’t put his writers on the deal or give them any salary or remuneration. I had had enough! It was a hopeless scenario and I quit so I could diversify my body of work. However, he still cannot use my stuff without my permission. I gave him two years of my life and nine spring scripts, all for free because I believed he would launch my career. I didn’t know this better. However, my lawyers have now advised me to ask payment for Sarkar 3 too, which I had written, and lay a claim on the royalties the film makes.

Q. You’ve done similar allegations in opposition to RGV in the past as well…

That’s because it’s been the third time he has done this! he believes he can keep getting away with it. The breaking point for me was when he ‘mutilated’ my version of GST (God, Sex and Truth). That hurt me deeply because the lines Mia Malkova utters were supposed to be a dialogue between regular people in a café, talking about sex and life in general. However, RGV took those words and made a porn star complete them, distorting them. What he claimed was a theoretical thesis were the ramblings of a 24-year-old me! In fact, RGV first stole a script from me when he made the short film” Meri Beti Sunny Leone Banna Chaahti Hai.”

However, because it was an immaterial YouTube video, I did not make a big deal about it. The atrocity he made is based on my book, where the characters talk about things mentioned in the film. While the lines are used in a conventional set-up, he gave it all a twist. Funnily, I quit right before he made that film. But mistakenly, he sent me my own script asking me to edit it.

Q. But RGV put out a series of tweets saying that ‘Officer’ is based on a true story enthused by a real-life police officer, Prasanna Kumar, whom he met in Mumbai…

He did that to counter my tweets in which I released the original script of Officer and urged Nagarjuna to arbitrate and get me justice. He thinks he can get away by identification a living person, an IPS officer no less, and claiming he was the inspiration behind the film. But he doesn’t seem to realize that this claim, which he must have made in a feeble attempt to disguise the real issue, can backfire. The seizure of a person, even if overvalued, is illegal.