Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie at the screening of Clint Eastwood’s The Exchange in Cannes. (AFP)

Cannes, May 21: Cannes today produced its first blazing Indian row with serious, long-term implications.

An Indian film distributor is threatening to take legal action against the mighty Reliance Big Entertainment because he claims Anil Ambani’s group is laying claim to a film for which he says he owns the rights.

A member of the Hinduja family, Avinaash Jumani, who handles international sales for the Mumbai-based family film distribution company, WEG India Pictures Pvt Ltd, said: “Of course, I was shocked to see that they have announced that one of their new movies is Waiting for Clinton.”

Jumani, who has been coming to Cannes for eight years, pointed out: “This is on the list of their 69 titles.”

He warned: “This is something I shall take up legally, of course.” The reference is to last week’s announcement from Reliance that it had put in $1 billion in funding a package of 69 mainly Indian movies, including Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s Broken Horses, which will be shot in America with a budget of $93 million.

In addition, Reliance has also done a deal for 30 movies with companies headed by major Hollywood stars such as Brad Pitt and George Clooney. It was possible Reliance did not know it was buying rights which were not for sale, Jumani speculated.

“The problem I am having is that I have acquired a project, a story, from a director in India and we own the copyright to that project and now what has happened is Reliance has gone ahead and bought the same thing again from the same director, the same subject,” alleged Jumani.

He was quick to spot Waiting for Clinton, a political satire, in the list of 69 movies Reliance was hoping to make or market. “I would have noticed because I own it,” he said with a touch of irony. “I have put money into it.”

Jumani said: “We got it from a person called Sanjiv Sivan — he is a first time director. Creativity is not something you can buy just with money. Money can be blown away with the wind.”

Jumani said he was left upset and angry after a meeting today in Cannes with Reliance representatives. “I had a discussion with them today but they are simply not bothered by what I have to say. They are saying, ‘it’s your problem.’ Being such a big corporate company and having an attitude is something to be thought about.”

On behalf of Reliance, Amit Khanna, chairman of Reliance Big Entertainment, denied the company had breached copyright. “We are one of the producers,” he said. “He (Jumani) may have some specific rights. There is no conflict in this.”