“Hari Puttar: A Comedy of Terrors” which tells the story of a hapless youngster dragged into a plot to save the world, was due to open last Friday but is now scheduled to premiere later this month.
Warner Bros say the film bears too close a resemblance to JK Rowling’s wizard hero and have refused offers by the Indian producers to put a disclaimer in the title sequence.
A Delhi court is due to hear the case later this month.
Mirchi Movies, the production house behind Hari Puttar, says that any similarity to the boy wizard is purely coincidental.
“Personally, I cannot see any resemblance between the names,” said Munish Purii, the chief executive of the company.
He said “Hari” was a popular boys’ name in India, while “Puttar” meant son, in Punjabi.
The Hindi-language children’s film, which was shot entirely on the Yorkshire Dales in 2006 and 2007 on a budget of £2 million, tells the story of Hari Prasad Dhoonda, who moves to Britain.
His father, Professor Dhoonda is assigned to work on a top-secret project for the Indian Army. His plans are kept on a computer chip hidden in the family’s house.
When Hari is left alone with the chip in the house, and two bungling thugs turn up to steal it, it is up to the youngster to save the secret plans, and the world.
Zain Khan, 11, the boy who plays Hari, said. “The movie has nothing to do with Harry Potter.”
The Hindustan Times has admitted the name could cause confusion.
The Harry Potter brand is estimated to be worth more than £7 billion and the books have sold more than 400 million copies.
Telegraph
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