The Commercial Division of the Bombay High Court on Wednesday (05/05/2021), granted interim relief to Viacom 18 in a copyright case it had brought against Panorama Studios International Ltd (Viacom 18 Media Pvt Ltd v. Panorama Studios International Ltd & Ors.).
The matter was heard by a single member bench comprising Justice G.S. Patel through video conferencing.
The matter relates to the Hindi remake of the sequel to the popular movie Malayalam movie Drishyam. The first part of the Malayalam blockbuster starring Mohanlal was remade in Hindi by Viacom with Ajay Devgn in the lead role. The present case includes Wide Angle Creations (WAC) and Raj Kumar Theatres Pvt Ltd. (RKT), who transferred the copyright for the remake of the first part of the movie to Viacom, as defendants, among others.
Viacom in the petition argued that WAC and RKT has executed a Remake Rights Agreement with itself assigning exclusive, absolute, irrevocable and perpetual copyright to produce new films by adapting the Malayalam film Drishyam.
Viacom claims that it has the copyright to the entire Drishyam franchise in Hindi and a Right of First Refusal in the case of any prequel or sequel to the original movie.
In 2017, Viacom and Panorama Studios Pvt Ltd, one of the defendants, had undertaken a negotiation for the production of a follow-up to the original movie as co-producers but a deal was not struck.
Meanwhile, Aashirwad Cinemas, the producer of the original Malayalam movie and one of the defendants in the petition, started shooting a sequel to the original movie in Malayalam.
WAC had sent a notice to Viacom seeking its interest in producing the sequel in Hindi but Viacom never replied. WAC considered the non-reply as a waiver of the Right of First Refusal by Viacom and allowed Aashirwad Cinemas to transact in the copyright of the sequel.
Under these circumstances, Panorama Studios International Ltd started the preliminary activities to produce the sequel in Hindi.
But later, Viacom sent a fresh notice to WAC stating that non-reply cannot be taken as a waiver and that the delay in reply was due to the Force Majeure incident of the pandemic.
Dissatisfied by the response to its notice and alleging unfair and dishonest conduct by the defendants Viacom approached the High Court.
During the preliminary hearing, the defendants submitted to the court that they are willing to desist from starting the shooting of the proposed movie till the petition is disposed of by the court and that any preparatory work will not be used to claim any equitable relief later.
The court order took cognizance of the representation by the respondents and reiterated it in its order as:
The statement is that the two Defendants will not themselves or through any other person with whom they may have a contract or arrangement, begin the shooting of the film in question, i.e. a sequel to the film Drishyam. Mr Naik for the 2nd Defendant accepts that if the 1st and 2nd Defendants take up any preparatory work, such as developing a treatment, script, screenplay or dialogue, this will be at their own risk, and that they will not be entitled to claim any equities on that basis under any circumstances whatsoever. These statements are accepted as undertakings to the Court.
The matter is posted for the next hearing on 18th June 2021.
