KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 20 — Actor and film director Syamsul Yusof today told the High Court here that he had never read nor own the novel titled ‘Aku Bohsia’ prior to the production of his film titled “Bohsia: Jangan Pilih Jalan Hitam”.
Syamsul, 31, claimed he got the idea to develop the script for the film by following the current issue of ‘mat rempit’ or reckless motorcycle riders.
“Bohsia is synonymous with the world of ‘mat rempit,” so it is from there the idea began.
“The idea was obtained from various stories found in the media and combined with my creative imaginations as script writer, also from the stories about typical city teenagers.” Syamsul said this in his witness statement in the hearing of a legal suit filed by the author of the novel, Elias Idris, against him and his father Datuk Yusof Haslam, 61, as well as their film production company, Skop Production Sdn Bhd, for alleged plagiarism.
Syamsul, who was represented by counsel Aizul Rohan Anuar, said the film script was written by him personally.
Apart from that, he said Elias’ blog postings, claiming that there was 85 per cent similarity between the story in the novel and in the film was a libel to defame him and his father.
“I am angry that the efforts taken by my father and I have been manipulated.
We worked so hard to produce the film and the plaintiff easily claimed that our film was a pirated adaptation of his novel, when we have never owned, heard and even read the novel at the time the film was produced,” he said.
Elias, who filed the suit on Nov 24 last year, claimed that the defendants had plagiarised the contents of his novel in their film “Bohsia: Jangan Pilih Jalan Hitam” which was produced in 2009.
He claimed that he wrote the novel using the pseudonym Anne Natasha Nita, and had obtained a copyright on it.
He is seeking a declaration that the defendants had infringed on his copyright ownership as the original writer; an injunction to prevent the defendants from screening the film; damages and costs.
Judge Datin Azizah Nawawi set Dec 3 for oral submissions. — Bernama
