Mahesh Bhatt was the ‘messiah of the poor’ as he joined Yash Chopra and other producers in opposing the The Copyright (Amendment) Act, says Javed Akhtar: ‘I was boycotted by producers’

Javed Akhtar played a key role in the passing of the Copyright (Amendment) Act, 2012. In a recent interview, the legendary screenwriter has spoken about what made him take the action to approach political leaders in order to pass this bill. Akhtar also admitted to have faced a lot of opposition from producers from the industry, including Yash Chopra and Mahesh Bhatt. Some production houses have still boycotted Javed Akhtar and haven’t worked with him since then, he revealed.The lyricist said in an interview with Mid-day, “Music directors came to my house and said, ‘We are being badly exploited.They give us unfair contracts, and we want you to become IPRS (Indian Performing Right Society) chairman. I realised that no music director or writer dared to stand up against the music companies and producers alone because they would ban them. The only solution was to change the law of the country.”He further added that during that time, leaders from the ruling party PM Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi — and the Opposition — Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj — got together to get the bill passed in both houses of the Parliament. However, he faced a lot of opposition from the industry. He said, “Some very big stars and producer-filmmakers were meeting people and opposing the bill. I will take their name – Yash Chopra and Mahesh Bhatt.”Javed further joked, “Mahesh Bhatt is the ‘messiah of the poor’ from that side… because ‘poor producers’ needed his help. When I met him at the airport, he said, ‘We have come to oppose your bill.’ I told him he had all the right. I even offered to help him with appointments with the political leaders.”He added, “There was a meeting where many producers, for some of whom I have written blockbuster films, passed a resolution that I shouldabe boycotted. Then somebody told them that it was illegal to boycott somebody; they aren’t very educated people anyway. Then they changed their stance and decided to suggest to people not to work with me till this problem was resolved. I lost many productions; even today they aren’t working with me.”