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Bradford refuses to let Karishma come alive

Last updated on: July 21, 2003 18:25 IST

The Calcutta high court on Monday allowed telecast of Sahara Entertainment's serial Karishma - A Miracle of Destiny dismissing an appeal by Barbara Taylor Bradford, but the American author promptly filed an appeal in the Supreme Court.

Karisma Kapoor

Bradford alleges the serial is a plagiarised version of her novel A Woman of Substance.

"We have already filed our appeal in the Supreme Court challenging the high court verdict" delivered earlier in the day, Taylor's counsel Som Mandal told PTI in Delhi on Monday evening.

Taylor has sought a stay on the clearance given to Sahara TV to go ahead with telecast of the serial.

The Rs 60 crore (Rs 600 million) serial was scheduled for telecast from May 12. The protagonist in the serial is top Bollywood actress Karisma Kapoor.

However, after only one episode, an appeal by the American author led to a court granting a stay on its telecast.

The stay order was vacated by a single judge bench on June 30.

On Monday, a two-judge bench of the Calcutta HC comprising Justice A N Ray and Justice J Banerjee was hearing an appeal by Bradford against the June 30 order.

Allowing the telecast from Monday evening, the division bench also directed the American author to pay damages for the delay in the telecast of the serial as well as the cost of litigation.

The two-judge court ordered Bradford to pay Rs 150,000 per week for causing delay in telecast of the serial to Sahara TV.

Karisma KapoorThe bench also directed the novelist to pay Rs 10,000 per day for the proceedings in the trial court and Rs 15,000 per day for proceedings in the appeal court as cost of litigation to Sahara Entertainment.

The bench also waived the bank guarantee of Rs 25 lakh (Rs 2.5 million) that Sahara had been asked to furnish.

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