TITLE ISSUE ON SALMAN KHAN’S ‘JAI HO’

Sohail Khan is all set for his next directorial venture, ‘Jai Ho’. The film stars Salman Khan in the lead and will release on 24th Jan 2014.

But, now an unexpected hurdle has come on its way. There is an issue on the film’s title.

It is learnt that musician A R Rahman, following his ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ triumph, has trademarked the title ‘Jai Ho’. The song ‘Jai Ho’, that appears in the finale of Danny Boyle’s ‘Slumdog Millionaire’, fetched Rahman an Oscar for Best Song. The title is very close to the music composer and there is a buzz around that he had the title in mind for the film he wants to make soon.

A source said that as soon as Sohail decided to name his film ‘Jai Ho’, he was told that he would need an official go ahead from Rahman.

Dina Dattani, Rahman’s lawyer confirmed, “The trademark ‘Jai Ho’ is a registered trademark owned by Mr Rahman and accordingly the use of the trademark in film, music or any other categories in which it is registered globally, requires an official license from Mr Rahman. So far as the film Jai Ho produced by Sohail Khan is concerned, Mr Salman Khan and Mr Sohail Khan are well known to Mr Rahman and their use of Mr Rahman’s trademark is being dealt with between them in the normal course of business as is customary in this regard.”

Sohail Khan was unavailable for any comment but a source close to him pointed out that film titles cannot be trademarked.

A source said, “If it is cleared by any one of the four film bodies (Indian Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, Western India Motion Picture & Television, Indian Motion Picture Producers Association, Producers Guild) that the producer is a member of. It cannot be challenged,”

Now let’s wait and watch whether Salman Khan starrer will have a new title?