Barbara Taylor Bradford, the best-selling author, lost her legal challenge yesterday in India's supreme court to stop the broadcast of a Bollywood soap opera which she claimed was based on her books.

Ms Taylor Bradford, who was born in Yorkshire and lives in New York, had accused Bombay-based Sahara Television of plagiarising her work for its £8m soap Karisma, The Miracles of Destiny".

She claimed the TV soap, which is India's most expensive ever, drew from three of her novels, especially A Woman of Substance.

She said she would not pursue the matter further. In a statement after the ruling, she said: "This judgment will further embolden infringers to violate intellectual property rights in India, especially by the Bollywood community."

She said Bollywood "continuously duplicates bestselling films and books" and claimed most of the "substantial evidence" that backed up her case was "not properly considered".

Sahara said the soap was based on a story by a leading scriptwriter. Ejaz Maqbool, a lawyer for the firm, said: "It's a complete victory for us."

In both Karisma and the book, a gutsy woman rises from poverty, as a street sweeper in the television series and as a servant in the book, to head an international corporation. In both, the woman looks back on her life as a grandmother.

A Woman of Substance was one of the 10 bestselling fiction books of all time, with sales of more than 24m.