In a case that involves what she calls "intellectual rape," Barbara Taylor Bradford is suing a large Indian production company for using her Woman of Substance trilogy as the basis for a widely promoted prime-time television series.
Bradford, the flamboyant British-born author of several bestselling family melodramas, won an injunction from a district court and then the Supreme Court of India, after traveling there to sue a company called Sahara TV for its Bollywood series Karishma—Miracle of Destiny. Bradford charged that the production company lifted scenes, characters and details from her books. The company aired the first episode despite the injunction, putting it in contempt of court. No episodes have been shown since.
"When I first heard about it, I thought 'What a nice little movie,' " she said. "Then I realized they were doing 260 episodes. They had put up 800 billboards. This was a big deal. And I thought, 'The arrogance. They just plagiarized my work.' " Bradford said she was most worried that the series would crib from her new book, Emm's Secret, which will come out from Harper UK in the summer and from St. Martin's Press in the U.S. next winter. So, acting on advice from her Indian law firm, Fox & Mandal, she decided to travel to India. The case could still go to trial, or the parties might settle.
It is a widespread, if illegal, practice for some Indian production companies to recontextualize American entertainment products as Bollywood movies. Many Americans and Brits will sue, but will not follow up personally in an Indian court. Because of Bradford's presence, though, the case has created a stir in that country, prompting many editorials calling for an end to these Bollywood practices. "They can call it infringement of copyright and other fancy terms. But where I come from in the north of England, they have a word for it: stealing," Bradford said.
