Nautanki Saala: interim relief rejected by the Bombay HC

Image from here

On April 10, 2013  S.J.Kathawalla, J. dismissed an application for restraining the release of the movie Naukanti Saala (the move released today!) 

Scriptwriter Radhey Shayam (who wrote the script for the movie Dastoor) applied for this injunction on the ground that Ramesh Sippy Entertainment Pvt. Ltd (defendants) had violated his copyright in his script of ‘Dastoor’.  He claimed that the defendants had used his story in making the film Nautanki Saala. However,  he was not able to prove that he had narrated his story to the defendants and his main allegation seemed to surround one particular scene of the movie which related to a theatre that was allegedly from his story. He even submitted that if the scene was changed to a ‘restaurant scene’ he would have no objections! The court rightly held that “this by no stretch of imagination can be treated as a breach of his copyright in his story “DASTOOR ”. A common scene or concept does not entitle any story writer to allege breach of copyright of his story.” (see here for  the order)

Moreover, the defendants claimed that their film was a remake of a French movie Apres vous(After You) (directed by Mr. Pierre Salvadori and produced by Mr. Phiippe Martgin). The defendants produced an agreement executed on 01/06/2012 which proved that they had acquired remake rights for a consideration of nearly 4 Crores.

This claim was clearly frivolous and this leaves us to see whether more such frivolous suits will be filed in the future.