The Delhi High Court recently vacated an ex parte ad-interim injunction that it had granted restraining the release of the Hindi dubbed version of the Telegu remake. While doing so, the Court breaks down the rights in a movie and lays out the details of who owns what rights particularly when it comes to remakes of existing movies.
Brief Facts:
A Malayalam film “Ayyappanum Koshiyum” which was released in February 2020 was very successful.
The Plaintiff (JA Entertainment) sought the Hindi remake rights of the Malayalam film along with the rights to dub and subtitle Malayalam film in Hindi and any other language, which were granted through an agreement (A deed of Assignment).
The Producer of the Malayalam film granted Sithara Entertainment the right to remake the Malayalam Film in Telugu.
The present dispute arose when JA Entertainment came across a trailer of a Telegu film on YouTube “Bheemla Nayak” dubbed in Hindi and produced by Sithara Entertainment. The movie Bheemla Nayak was a Telugu remake of the Malayalam movie.
Alleging infringement of its rights granted through the Agreement, the Plaintiff approached the Delhi High Court and was granted a temporary injunction against the Sithara and the Producer from releasing Bheemla Nayak.
The Defendant’s then filed an application to vacate the injunction that was granted against them, and the matter was taken up by the Court and decided in the present order.
Contentions:
The Contentions of JA Entertainment were that the rights of Sithara including the remake rights were limited to the Telugu language and that that the dubbing of the movie “Bheemla Nayak” in Hindi would amount to infringement of JA Entertainment’s copyright.
JA Entertainment had no problem with Sithara being the rightful assignee of the rights of the remake film but argued that their rights did not extend to dubbing its Telugu film in Hindi.
JA Entertainment also contested that “Bheemla Nayak” was not a ‘completely new work’ rather it was a remake of a Malayalam film and mere cosmetic alteration cannot be claimed as a ‘new work’ flavor to Telugu film.
On the other hand, the contentions raised by Defendants were that the deed of assignment that they had signed, dated 18-03-2020 mentioned copyrights in the story and for re-making and dubbing the Malayalam film into Telugu language and subtitling rights into all Indian and world languages, without any geographical restrictions as well as to exploit the same throughout the world in all formats and media.
Sithara argued that even though the Malayalam film script was similar to the Telegu film script, it had a new cast, new songs, and different dialogues and could be constituted as a new work. Thus, the dubbing of Telugu film in Hindi could not amount to infringement of Plaintiff’s rights.
Rights Granted in the Agreements
Assignment Deed 1 – 18.03.2020 (Producer and Sithara)
Rights granted to “remake and dub into Telugu language and subtitle into Indian and all world languages without any geographical restrictions and to exploit the said remade and dub version and subtitled version film for and throughout the world on all the formats mentioned above for a Forever period”
The ASSIGNORS have assigned all copy rights of the said story of the Malayalam Feature film Ayyappanum Koshiyum in favour of the ASSIGNEES to remake and dub into Telugu language and subtitle into all Indian and all world languages and to exploit the same throughout the world in entire format and the ASSIGNEES shall have the full rights to deal, sell and enjoy the benefits with the copy right. The ASSIGNEES shall have all the rights to alter, delete, add, modify the story and screenplay of the said picture in any manner to suit the convenience of the ASSIGNEES
The ASSIGNEE(Sithara) reserves the rights to exploit / sell / distribute / re-assign the assigned Telugu language Dubbing and remaking rights and subtitling rights to anybody any manner he think fit.
Assignment Deed 2 – 13.05/2020 (Producer and JA Entertainment)
Rights granted to “Remake and Dubbing Rights (defined below) of the Film for the Language (as defined below) for the territory of the world, to be exercised by the Assignees on all Modes, Mediums and Formats not known or coming into existence in the future. For the purpose of this Agreement, “Remake and Dubbing Rights” shall mean the sole and exclusive right to (i) make a new cinematograph film based on the Film and the underlying works thereof (“New Film”) in the Hindi language (“Language”) and (ii) the right to dub the Film in any and all languages now known or coming into existence in the near future (“Dubbed Film”). The Remake and Dubbing Rights shall further include without limitation the sole and exclusive rights viz. : (i) The exclusive right to produce, co-produce the New Film in the Language based on the literary works of the said Film; (ii) The right to use the title of the Film and underlying works therein including but not limited to the literary works in the New Film with/without adaptations, mutilations or modifications, as the case may be, at the sole discretion of the Assignee; (iii) The right to exploit the New Film/Dubbed Film and exploitation rights of the New Film/Dubbed Film on all available on all Modes Mediums and Formats, platforms of exploitation, present and/or future in perpetuity including but not limited to theatrical, non-theatrical, satellite, home video, DTH, on demand, mobile, digital, internet, broadband, website etc.; (iv) The right to use the characters, story lines, titles, characterizations with or without sound accompaniment and with or without the interpolation of musical numbers therein to adapt, rearrange and make any changes in, deletions from or additions to the underlying works of the said Film, to change the sequence thereof, to use a portion or portions of any underlying works, to change the characters and the description of the characters of the said Film, to use any component, underlying work of the said Film; (v) the right to dub the New Film/Film in any language currently existing or coming into existence in the future; (vi) The right of edit, clip right of the New Film/Dubbed Film, right to sub-titling, in any language for any purpose through any media; (vii) The rights to use excerpts, summaries and extracts of the New Film/Dubbed Film in any form such as books, posters, news items, trailers, etc. for purpose of exploiting, promoting the New Film/Dubbed Film in the Language; (viii) All other ancillary rights, including without limitation to derivative rights, in the New Film, Dubbed Film and all underlying works thereof; (ix) The right to recreate and/or use any theme music and/or any background music of the Film for the New Film; (x) The right to exercise and enjoy all rights comprised in copyright in the New Film and the Dubbed Film as first owner thereof, including the right to register and secure copyright, trademark and domain name registrations and renewals in the Assignee’s name and expense throughout the Territory and; (xi)All other ancillary rights in the underlying works of the New Film;
Holding:
After reviewing the provisions of the Copyright Act, the Agreements and the holding of the Madras High Court in Thiagarajan Kumararaja v. Capital Film Works (India) Pvt. Ltd, The Court in this present case held that
a) The producer of a movie was the first owner of a Copyright
b) The rights of a Producer in a movie included the right to communicate the work, make copies, sell/rent the work and the right to remake the work in another language.
Accordingly, JA Entertainment had the right to re-make the Malayalam film in Hindi and dub the Malayalam Film, but that Sithara had the rights to re-make the Malayalam film in Telegu.
The court with reference to the Madras High court case observed the right to communicate a film would include the right to dub. Therefore, by the operation of law, Sithara in its own right as a copyright owner in the remade Telugu movie has a right to dub the Telugu film in any language including Hindi and that the Plaintiff could not assert any right to restrain Sithara from dubbing the Telugu film in Hindi.
The deed of Assignment between Sithara and the Producer of the Malayalam Film had granted the dubbing of Malayalam film or its remake in Telugu language and Sithara was neither remaking nor dubbing the Malayalam film in Hindi language and accordingly the Plaintiff could have no grievance with the manner Sithara was exploiting its rights in the remade Telegu film.
This article has been authored by Ms. Avantika Wasnik.