CALCUTTA, Aug 20: A close associate of Mother Teresa, categorically said here today that the Dominique Lapierre, the celebrated French author, ``had had no authorization either to make a film on Mother's life or sell the script.'' The Missionaries of Charity insisted that the script did not have the Mother's permission and decided to monitor the situation through its attorneys.The controversy seemed to have reached a climax with a national English daily publishing a telephonic interview of the author of the City of Joy here today, in which he claimed that ``he was pained by Mother's sudden turnaround.''He also claimed in the interview that he actually worked and completed the script for the proposed telefilm - Mother Teresa: In the name of God's Poor - with Mother's approval.``To clear any misunderstanding on the issue, we put it in plain and simple words that the contract which was signed between the Mother and Lapierre was withdrawn by former as she wasn't happy with the script,'' a close associate of Mother, Sunita Kumar told the reporters here today at a press conference.In a statement, on behalf of the Missionaries of Charity, Kumar told the reporters that the French author misrepresented facts and paid more attention to the commercial aspect than to ``glorify the gospel of God which annoyed the Mother very much.''Incidentally, earlier this Monday in a strong statement Superior General Sister Nirmala also denied that The Missionaries of Charity having authorised Lapierre to make a film on the life of Mother Teresa.According to reports the script, sold to an America-based company, Hallmark Entertainment, was supposed to go on air in form of a movie from October 5.Way back in '82 Mother Teresa gave permission, which Lapierre claims to have been a contract, to make a film on her life. The `contract', according to Missionaries of Charity's sources, suffered first setback two years later as technically it was declared invalid because there was no ``condition attached with it.''And on legal advise Mother promptly withdrew the permission. However, when Lapierre sought her permission again in '88, mother, according to Charity sources, asked him to show her the script.When in '89 the script was given to Mother for approval, she, quite unhappy over what it turned out to be, asked Lapierre to carry out changes, which, according to Kumar, ``was ignored and he went ahead with his plans.''This led to Mother's finally withdrawing the permission on November 7, '90 ``stripping Lapierre of any rights to go ahead with the film,'' Kumar later told The Indian Express.
