Shahid Kapoor’s Jersey, which was previously slated to release on 14 April, was postponed days before it was set to hit the screens. The initial reports claimed it was to avoid any clash with the Kannada film KGF: Chapter 2, but now the film’s producer has revealed that it's due to a plagiarism row. The Bombay High Court rejected a stay on the release of Jersey while hearing the copyright infringement suit against its producers and actor Shahid Kapoor.
According to a report by Bar and Bench, a writer, Rajneesh Jaiswal, claimed that the producers plagiarised his script titled The Wall, which reportedly has glaring similarities with the sports drama. Senior Advocate Dr Birendra Saraf, appearing for the producer, Allu Aravind, refuted claims of plagiarism arguing:
"The film was dubbed in Hindi and 10 crore people watched it. It was available on most OTT platforms... it is available on YouTube. It is not just made for Telugu speaking people, but across the country, 10 crore people viewing it with cricket as the theme... It is inconceivable that he has not viewed it. It is unbelievable that the plaintiff did not know about the Telugu film which was viewed widely and much acclaimed", Aravind said
Producer Aman Gill told ETimes that the hearing was scheduled for Wednesday, so a Thursday release would not be possible so they decided to postpone the release by a week to 22 April. till they got clarity. And now that they got a favourable order, it clears the way for a release next week.
The film was delayed earlier as well. It was all set to release on 31 December, 2021, but was postponed due to the increase in Omicron cases. But the recent setback was due to legal issues.
The film stars Shahid Kapoor, Mrunal Thakur, and Pankaj Kapur. It is the remake of the 2019 Telegu film of the same name. The film follows a former cricketer who comes back to the game to regain his self-worth.