After release of the film, the picture became embroiled in controversy. There were charges for plot was lifted from a Tamil movie called Iyarkai, without the permission of the film's National Award-winning director S.P.Jananathan
I'm tired of bolllywood! They are best in copy n paste!
"Saawariya" (like "Iyarkai") is based upon the Dostoevsky story "White Nights" (Russian short story - 1848). There are many Bollywood films that seem to 'borrow' other stories, but in this case "Saawariya" gives Dostoevsky full credit due, thus is lawfully within it's legal and moral right.
Prior to "Iyarkai" (Tamil - 2003), there were 5 other interpretations of this story put on film, "Le Notti Bianchi" (Italian - 1957), "Belye Nochi" (Russian - 1959), "Chhalia" (Hindi - 1960), "Four Nights of A Dreamer" (French - 1971) and "Shabhaye Roshan" (Iranian - 2003). AFTER "Iyarkai" and BEFORE "Saawariya", there was also "Ahista Ahista" (Hindi - 2006) which seems to have escaped any controversial furore.
To ask S.P.Jananathan for official legal permission to use story is (amusingly) baseless since it's not his story to begin with and thus not really relevant.