Betaal Pachisi (TV series)

Betaal Pachisi
Shahbaz Khan as Betaal
Genre	Fantasy
Based on	The Phantom by Lee Falk
Directed by	Sunil Agnihotri
Opening theme	"Ye To Hai Betaal"
Country of origin	India
Original language	Hindi
No. of episodes	49
Production
Running time	45 minutes
Production company	DD National
Original release
Network	DD Metro
Release	26 May 1997 (1997-05-26) – 1998 (1998)

Betaal Pachisi is an Indian television series based on the comic strip The Phantom. The 49-episode Hindi series originally ran from 1997 to 1998 on DD Metro. It was directed by Sunil Agnihotri and starred Shahbaz Khan, Sonu Walia, Puneet Issar, Tom Alter and Vindu Dara Singh.^[1][2][3]

Cast

• Shahbaz Khan as Betaal
• A. K. Hangal as Baba
• Tom Alter as CID Officer Harry
• Sonu Walia as TV reporter
• Vindu Dara Singh as Zulmato
• Puneet Issar as Kabira (Main antagonist) aka Danav Samrat
• Krutika Desai Khan as Naina Jogan
• Nimai Bali as Teja
• Shiva Rindani as Hiboo/Evu Jingora
• Mac Mohan as Mackie
• Shehzad Khan as Shahdie
• Sudhir as Bash
• Mamik Singh
• Sagar Salunke
• Arjun as Marko the Magician
• Rajendra Gupta as Felix the Don / Professor
• Deep Dhillon as Jakaali
• Javed Khan as Forest Officer
• Akhilendra Mishra as Kroor Singh
• Reena Wadhwa as Maharani Kakooti
• Tinnu Anand as Alex the Don
• Polly as ET
• Surendra Pal as Zulmato's sidekick
• Archana Joglekar as Nagin
• Daman Maan as Jadugar Garsha
• Usha Bachani as Rajkumari Ballari
• Vinod Kapoor
• Hemant Birje as Tarzan

Controversy

The show faced a lawsuit when King Features Syndicate filed a case arguing that Sunil Agnihotri had copied the idea of The Phantom comic strips for the Betaal series.^[4][5] However, the court ruled that only the unique expression of an idea could be protected, not the idea itself.^[6]

References

1. "Star of Chandrakanta and Betaal Pachisi, Shahbaz Khan to cut his first album". India Today. 29 September 1997.
2. "Fanning out fantasy". The Hindustan Times. 8 October 1997. Archived from the original on 28 January 1999.
3. "TRPs of Krishna on DD falls as Betaal Pachisi draws lot of viewers". India Today. 28 July 1997.
4. Narayanan, Parameswaran (2007). Law of copyright and industrial designs. Eastern Law House. pp. 17, 46. ISBN 978-81-7177-190-5. Retrieved 23 April 2012.
5. "Phantom". Business World. Ananda Bazar Patrika Ltd.: 46 January 1997. Retrieved 23 April 2012.
6. Mayur Suresh; Atreyee Majumder; Lawrence Liang. "Encountering the Sustaining Myths of Copyright" (PDF). Infochangeindia.org. Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 July 2007. Retrieved 23 April 2012.

External links

• Betaal Pachisi at IMDb