KOLKATA, INDIA, October 11, 2007: Last year, they made a replica of Swami Vivekananda’s residence, before that it was the Titanic. But a puja committee in Kolkata seems to have hit a bad spell this year with their Hogwarts Castle pandal attracting a US$50,800 fine for copyright violations. Just when they were getting into the swing of the Durga Puja magic under a giant marque modeled on Harry Potter’s school, the FD Block puja committee in Salt Lake got a shock when they received a summons from the Delhi High Court asking it and the decorators to appear in court on Friday.
According to the organizers, the summons run into 394 pages and mention J.K. Rowling and others as the plaintiff. It states that the puja committee can carry out the puja after paying US$50,800. With only six days to go for the festival, the organizers don’t know what to do. “The summons has come at a time when the pandal is almost ready. We don’t know what to do now because we can’t afford to pay the fine. We are taking legal help and talking to West Bengal Sports Minister Subhas Chakraborty, our chief patron, to sort out the problem, ” block committee president Hiranmoy Roychowdhury said. “It appears the case was filed by Penguin, distributor of Harry Potter books in India. Our committee representatives will go to Delhi to sort out the matter.” Said Nirmalya Roychowdhury, the regional sales manager of Penguin India that publishes the Harry Potter books: “I am not sure whether the committee has taken permission for using the name of a very popular character. For using anything related to Harry Potter, written permission is necessary from an appropriate authority. Otherwise, legal action can be taken. The puja organizers say they find the situation “unthinkable.”
There had never been any court summons to any puja organizer before with Kolkatata’s famed pandals choosing different themes every year. Roychowdhury, however, said work on the pandal would not be stopped because the court has not issued any such directive.