They say 'No publicity is bad publicity'. With Ram Gopal Varma's panache for controversy, his movies need no publicity stunts.

Varma's latest offering, Rann, is funded by Vistaar Religare Film Fund, a  joint venture between Vistaar Entertainment Ventures, a film production house and Religare Enterprises, a leading financial services fund and India's first cinema venture capital fund.

Last year, a song in Rann, titled 'Jana Gana Mana Rann Hai' had the Supreme Court frowning upon the 'remixed' National Anthem. The producers had appealed to the Supreme Court after the Central Board of Film Certification had banned the song. Senior Counsel Arun Jaitley had unsuccessfully argued on behalf of the producers and Varma had to replace the controversial song with Vande Mataram.

In matters relating to Bollywood, it is common to see suits being filed on the eve of the release as we have seen in Kaminey, All the Best, Kurbaan, Jail and several other films. The trend continues this time as well. Sonal Mehta, a freelance journalist and scriptwriter had filed suit in the Bombay High Court claiming breach of confidential information and infringement of her copyright, a week before the scheduled release of Rann. Justice Dharmadhikari had, while hearing another matter remarked, "There is an increasing tendency to file suits against films on the eve of their release. Such moves amount to nothing but blackmail."

IANS reports that Varma has admitted that Mehta had worked with Varma for his production house and had approached him with an idea for a movie on the media. Varma says that he had rejected the idea.

Mehta has engaged Legasis Partners to represent her before Justice Anoop V. Mohta. Senior Counsel Virag Tulzapurkar with Ashish Kamat are representing Mehta. The 8 respondents arraigned by Mehta includes WSG Pictures and Varma. Entertainment law specialists, Naik, Naik & Co., led by Vineet Naik with Ameet Naik, Ravi Suryawanshi and Hemangi Abhyankar are defending. The other two are represented by Kartikeya & Associates led by Off Counsel Venkatesh Dhond with Ashish Pyasi and Vidhee Parekh, and Birendra Saraf with Anuja Jhunjhunwala.

The matter is scheduled for hearing today as both parties are working out an out of court settlement. The movie is due for release on 29 January.