Warner Bros. sues over Hari Puttar film

Brett Singer — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 20:00:00 GMT

A Bollywood film producer has madea movie called. "Hari Puttar - A Comedy of Terrors." Warner Bros. thinks "Hari Puttar" sounds too much like their cash cow, "Harry Potter", so they've sued, going so far as to seek a preliminary injunction to prevent the movie from opening on September 12.

CNN spoke to one of the producers, Munish Purii, who denies any link to J.K. Rowling's boy wizard. "There is absolutely nothing to link 'Hari Puttar' with 'Harry Potter."' Apparently, "Hari is a common name in India and 'puttar' is Punabji for son."

The plot of "Putar" actually sounds much more like "Home Alone."

Hari Prasad Dhoonda…or ‘Hari Puttar’, as he is fondly called, is a bright 10 year old who has recently moved from India to the UK with his parents…His father, Prof. Dhoonda is assigned to work on a secret project with the Defense Forces at a remote location in the UK…Within days of their arrival in London, Hari's aunt and uncle DK visit the Dhoonda residence with their own as well DK's boss' children. Suddenly, the house is filled with the effervescence of no less than ten kids. At this point, everything goes for a spin for ‘Hari Puttar’. Not only is he thrown out of his room to accommodate the girls, he is also ragged and ridiculed by all the other kids for being too naïve. ‘Hari Puttar’ suddenly feels unwanted, undermined and unappreciated. To top it, even as DK arranges a vacation for the entire family, one night before they take off, Hari's mother sends him off to the attic bedroom as a punishment for no big fault of his. As luck would have it, the next morning, the whole family leaves in a tearing hurry, forgetting that they have left something integral behind - Namely Hari and his little cousin Tuk Tuk…

That's straight from glamsham.com; apologies for the occasional broken English.

So apart from the title, you have an annoying Aunt and Uncle (shades of Vernon and Petunia Dursley) and a kid being thrown in the attic as punishment for something that wasn't his fault (that one is a bit of a stretch.) You do not, however, have a boy wizard or anything like that. But there is that name, and its not parody, which in theory makes it OK (I'm not a lawyer but I did appear on The People's Court once, so that makes me an expert… NOT.)

Some of the comments on glamsham.com are hysterical. A sampling:

While I agree with everyone else about the similarities between this movie and Home Alone, I'd rather watch something like that than something that involves witchcraft and teaches children how to actually perform spells. I'm not sure what was in the minds of the creators of Harry Potter, but all I see is corruption aimed toward the minds of our youth!

Ah yes. The old "J.K. Rowling is a Satanist who only wants to send our children to Hell." Good times, good times.

Source: CNN
Image: glamsham.com

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