MUMBAI: Two days after the Bombay High Court ordered Subhash Ghai to hand over to the government of Maharashtra the 20-acre land on which his film and television institute Whistling Woods is situated, Balaji Telefilms Limited finds itself caught in a similar situation.

Though the case in mention involves Maharashtra Film, Stage & Cultural Development Corporation Limited (MFSCDCL) and a 50-year old farmer Abu Habale, the production house?s name has been dragged because an evacuation notice sent by MFSCDCL to Habale says it has given land to Balaji Telefilms Limited.

Replying to the notice, Habale?s advocate sent a notice to MFSCDCL and Balaji for not following the regular norm before asking his client to move out and accusing him of encroachment.

Though Habale and MFSCDCL are set to fight the case out in Court, Balaji is of the opinion that it should not be dragged into the private dispute.

Commented Balaji Telefilms CFO Sreenivas Shenoy, ?We have no comments on the matter. It is a matter between the government body and the farmer and we are not in any way connected with it. Though we were interested in the plot, the deal had not materialised. We have neither the local standi neither the competency to comment on the matter. We are not even the tenants of the land.?

According to Habale, though he has been farming on the plot for years, the MFSCDCL has pronounced him an encroacher. ?They have called it ?encroachment? after giving the land to Balaji. They have uprooted trees and cut water supply. We paid charges to the government from the 1960s to the 1990s. The government then stopped taking money,? Habale said.

MUMBAI: Indian Merchants? Chamber (IMC) is organising a day-long conference, ?Fusion 2012?, on 1 February in Mumbai.

Fusion brings sports, media and entertainment industry on a single dais to enable the participants to interact with industry biggies and celebrities sharing ideas the theme ?C3i: Content ? Creation to Consumption & Audience Involvement?.

IMC president Bhavna Doshi said, ?The content industry is growing exponentially, reaching out to a multitude of consumers - across multiple platforms - in new and scalable formats with new and innovative monetisation strategies and programmes. With new generation of eReaders, tablets and smart phones enabling the consumers to be free and paid, relationships are making for an expanded universe of content creation and consumption.?

The conference will look at new trends and technologies that are transforming and redefining relationships that combine these three sectors and the consumer. Apart from many contemporary trends which will be explored during the conference, it will also deliberate on ethics in journalism and advertising.

The Conference, hosted and moderated by Kabir Bedi, will be inaugurated by Union Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports Ajay Maken and will have the industry leaders from the fields of media, entertainment, advertisement, film and TV, animation and content production, telecom and sports marketing as speakers and participants.

The speakers at the conference include Sunil Lulla (MD & CEO, Times TV Network); Bhaskar Das (ED, BCCL-TOI); Subhash Ghai (film director); Santosh Desai (CEO, Future Brands), Srikant Sastri (Country Chair, Vivaki & Publicis Groupe), Geet Sethi (Billiards champion), Alok Malik (MD, ESPN), Shobhaa De (Author, Columnist, Novelist) and Arnab Goswami (ED, Times Television).