Sanjay Dutt's film, Charles & I seems to be embroiled in controversy after Charles Sobhraj threatened to sue the film's producers. The shooting was to start in February next year.
But Anupam Mittal -- the film's producer and promoter of matrimonial website shaadi.com -- claims otherwise. "We have not been served any legal notice," he says. "We have seen stories in newspapers but we have received nothing [legal notice] so far. We have also issued a release in the newspapers that we have not deliberately copied anybody's life and we cannot copy anybody's life if we don't have access to him."
But isn't Charles & I based on Charles Sobhraj's life? "All films are inspired by true incidents and events of people," he says. "When the director-writer wrote the film, he had a reference point but that does not mean that the film is based on him [Charles Sobhraj]. We are just making a psychological thriller based on a criminal, who is elusive and the entire world is after him. It is up to the audience to decide on whether our film is based on his life. We don't think there is a basis for a legal case."
Born Gurmukh Sobhraj to an unwed Vietnamese woman and an Indian tailor, Charles Sobhraj is an international criminal. Between 1972 to 1982, the suave and sophisticated Sobhraj committed at least 20 murders in India, Thailand, Afghanistan, Turkey, Nepal, Iran and Hong Kong.
Sobhraj is presently in Kathmandu jail serving sentence.
