Kangana Ranaut’s Queen 2 ‘unauthorised,’ claims Phantom Studios; files Rs 250 cr lawsuit

Despite multiple requests of settlement discussions not being entertained by either JioStudios or Bahl, Phantom Studios had to take the legal action route, as reported by Mid-Day. Phantom Studios holds 50% rights of Queen, including the right to make sequels. It hasn’t consented to any sequels, adaptations or derivative works of the film so far.

JioStar responds to lawsuit

Responding to the allegations, JioStar said Queen 2 is an original film with an independent story. “The new film has an original, independent story. It has no narrative, character or creative connection to any prior work, and is neither a sequel nor a prequel to any existing title,” the company said in a statement.

JioStar also rejected Phantom Studios’ claim over the title, stating, “The word ‘Queen’ is a part of the English language. No party can claim exclusive ownership over a common noun and any such claim has no basis in law.”

History of Queen

Queen was originally produced by Phantom Films, which was founded by Bahl, Anurag Kashyap, Vikramaditya Motwane, and Madhu Mantena. It even won the National Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi for Queen. However, after Bahl’s name came up during the MeToo movement, it led to disagreements between the four founding members.

As the founding members began leaving the company one by one, Phantom Film was disbanded in 2019. However, Mantena, along with producer Sheetal Talwar, revived the company in 2022 as Phantom Studios, which produced Advait Chandan’s romantic comedy Loveyapa, starring Junaid Khan and Khushi Kapoor, last year.

After the success of Queen, four South remakes were also announced in 2018. The Tamil remake, directed by Ramesh Aravind, starred Kajal Aggarwal in Kangana’s role. The Telugu remake, That Is Mahalaxmi, starred Tamannaah Bhatia as the lead in a film helmed by Prasanth Varma. Zam Zam, the Malayalam remake directed by Neelakanta, featured Manjima Mohan in the lead. And the Kannada remake, also directed by Aravind, starred Parul Yadav.

The four remakes, which were scheduled to be released at the same time, could never see light of the day. While it was logistical issues that delayed the shoot first, the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) objected to certain scenes in a couple of remakes. The remakes, which were being produced by Manu Kumaran, could eventually never release owing to an ownership dispute.

Also Read — ‘Samay Raina’s Latent 2 has a long list of lawyers’: Kunal Kamra answers if the show’s edgy

Meanwhile, the original Queen, written by Anvita Dutt, revolved around Kangana’s character Rani, who after being ditched by her fiancé (Rajkummar Rao), decides to go on a solo honeymoon instead. During her trip to Paris, she makes unlikely friends, including Lisa Haydon’s Vijayalakshmi, and eventually gives her ring back to her fiancé, who wants to reconcile and marry her.