Title clash: Sharmiela Mandre approaches Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce, after Nani announces pan-India film Dasara

Actor-producer Sharmiela Mandre’s next is the Kannada film Dasara, which has been in production since before the pandemic. While her film, directed by Arvind Sastry, is gearing up for release, the announcement by Telugu actor Nani of his next, a pan-India project called Dasara that will release in Kannada as well, has come as a bit of a shocker. Sharmiela has now filed a copyright claim at the Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce, stating that her production house had registered the title Dasara with the chamber in September 2020. The teaser of Nani’s film was recently released in Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada, with the title Dasara.

Sharmiela’s contention is that makers of pan-India films are required to register the title of the movie with the competent authorities in each industry it is being released. As such, the makers of Nani’s Dasara should have registered the title with the KFCC, which they failed to do. Had they attempted to register it, they would have known that it is unavailable. The team of Nani’s film apparently released the issue way too late, by which time, the teaser launch had already been planned.

Sharmiela, however, is hopeful of an amicable resolution to this issue, with Nani’s team choosing a different title only for the Kannada version. On social media, meanwhile, fans said that the latter would find an easy solution to this predicament. “They will just make it Nani’s Dasara, with Nani’s in a much smaller, almost illegible font,” they said.