Hindi Movie ‘Thank You’ being released on 8th April 2011 survived court case

On 4th April 2011, the Delhi High Court (Justice Gita Mittal) restrained cable operators nationwide from distributing, telecasting and broadcasting the movie ‘Thank you’ and/or otherwise infringing the copyright. The Case Suit No.821/2011 was filed by UTV Software Communications Limited. The order restricts 1,600 known cable operators and unknown persons also from telecasting the film. The SHO/superintendent of concerned police stations have also been directed to render assistance to UTV for the purpose of enforcement of the order.

It is to be noted that Piracy has been plaguing the entertainment industry for decades and is one of the biggest impediments to the growth of the business. Film piracy has reached gargantuan proportions, causing tremendous leakage in revenues of film producers. Cable operators have been exploiting the movie industry by illegally screening films on their networks almost immediately after theatrical release of a film. This decision by the Delhi High Court is a milestone judgment in tackling piracy and is expected to be a huge deterrent to cable piracy. The court's decision to grant pre-emptive relief from piracy to a plaintiff is being considered an important step forward in the ongoing battle against copyright infringement.

The film, directed by Anees Bazmee, has been produced by UTV Motion Pictures and Hari Om Productions. Releasing Friday 8th April 2011, "Thank You" stars Akshay Kumar, Bobby Deol, Suniel Shetty, Irrfan Khan, Sonam Kapoor, Celina Jaitly and Rimmi Sen.

In another case (Suit No. 850/2011) filed by Bollywood music composer Anandji Virji Shah, the Delhi High Court (Justice Sunil Gaur) on 6.4.2011 declined to grant a stay on the release of Akshay Kumar-starrer movie. But he sought a response from the film producer. In the civil suit, the music composer has said the re-mix version of the song 'Pyaar do pyaar lo' from the movie 'Jaanbaaz', released in early eighties, has been used in the Anees Bazmee-directed movie 'Thank You' without obtaining his permission.

This is a blog dedicated to the cases pertaining to the Bollywood movies and artists. Watch out this space every week for latest updates. Sunil Goel advocateB.Sc. L.Lb L.Lm

FEMA violation case against singer Adnan Sami

The Enforcement Directorate has confiscated eight flats and five car parking spaces of singer Adnan Sami in a high rise building in Mumbai and slapped a Rs 20 lakh fine on him for acquiring assets without permission of Reserve Bank of India as he was a Pakistani national. The properties, located in Oberoi Sky Garden Housing Society in posh Lokhandwala complex in suburban Andheri, were allegedly acquired by Sami in 2003 in violation of Foreign Exchange Management (acquisition and transfer of immovable property in India) Regulations, 2000. Under these regulations, any person, who is a citizen of Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Afghanisthan, China, Iran, Nepal or Bhutan cannot purchase or transfer any kind of immovable property in India without taking permission of RBI. The properties were confiscated following an order passed by Foreign Exchange Management Act adjudication authority.


Sami had purchased these properties in 2003 for Rs 2.53 crore. In 2008, he gifted five flats and three parking slots to his wife Sabah Galadari, a UAE national. Later, his relations with Sabah turned soar and she filed a divorce case against him. Sabah claimed that the flats gifted by Sami now belonged to her, although he disputed her plea in the court which declared their marriage null and void.

ED said that Sami had not taken approval of RBI to buy these properties and after acquiring them when he applied for the permission, the RBI had rejected his plea. ED claimed that while taking loans to buy properties, he had misled banks by declaring that he was an Indian national.

Sami had taken a stand before the FEMA adjudication authority that RBI had powers to grant ex-post-facto permission to acquire the properties and such an application made by him is pending before the apex court. He urged that till RBI decides his application, the authorities should not pass any order but his plea was rejected. The singer pleaded that he had taken loans from Axis bank to buy these properties and there was no question of foreign exchange violation and hence FEMA rules were not violated. He also told the FEMA adjudication forum that he had applied for Indian citizenship and his application was pending before authorities. The singer pleaded that he had got a PAN card and was paying income tax in India since last ten years. His mother was from Jammu and he had roots in India.

ED confiscated the flats saying purchase of all the properties as well as transfer of five flats and three parking slots to Sabah were illegal and violated FEMA laws.

Adnan Sami has a right to appeal before the appellate forum of FEMA i.e. appellate Tribunal foreign Exchange (ATFE) New Delhi.

Bombay High Court orders attachment of Sanjay Dutt's properties

Recently, on 27.12.2010, the Bombay High Court ordered the attachment of two properties of Bollywood star Sanjay Dutt. The case appears to be like this : a film producer Mr. Shakeel Noorani in 2002 had paid Sanjay Dutt a signing amount of Rs.50 lakh for his film Jaan Ki Baazi. But Dutt failed to complete the shooting. As per the claimant Shakeel Noorani, it was only in 2008 that Dutt finally told Noorani that he will not be completing the film, causing financial losses to Noorani. This led Noorani to invoke arbitration and he filed a claim of Rs. 3.28 cr against Sanjay Dutt with the Indian Motion Pictures Producers Association (IMPPA). In January 2010, the IMPPA passed an arbitration award in favour of Noorani. He sent the award to Sanjay Dutt and asked him to pay the amount within 90 days but Dutt failed to pay. As per Section 36 of the Arbitration & Conciliation Act 1996, the Award can be executed like a decree after the time period for challenging the award (90 days + 30 days) expires. Thus, Noorani filed case No. Ex.A/972/2010 in Bombay High Court for execution of the award/decree. The execution department of the Bombay High Court issued a warrant of attachment under Civil Procedure Code against Dutt and on 27.12.2010 Tuesday the notices of attachment of his properties in Bandra and Santa Cruz were pasted on the premises by the bailiff of the Sheriff's court.

Producers of 'Dabaang' and 'Teesmaar khan' dragged to court

As per some news reports, a public interest litigation (PIL) has been filed by one Nutan Thakur (wife of an Indian Police Service (IPS) officer) before the Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court on 23.12.2010 Thursday alleging obscenity in Bollywood films 'Dabangg' and 'Tees Maar Khan'.
The petition sought the deletion of popular songs 'Munni Badnaam Hui' from 'Dabangg' and 'Shiela ki Jawani' from 'Tees Maar Khan'. The PIL seeks action against 'Dabangg' producer Arbaz Khan and co-producers Malaika Arora Khan and Dhillin Mehta and also its director Abhinav Kashyap, besides 'Tees Maar Khan' producers Twinkle Khanna, Ronnie Screwvala and director Farah Khan for violating various provisions of the Indian Cinematography Act of 1952.
As per the allegations in the petition, said both the movies have 'several indecent, immoral and vulgar songs, dialogues and visual representations in total violation of sections 3(1), 4, 5(A), 5(C) and 5(E) of the Cinematography Act 1952'.
The petitioner prayed to the court to ask the Censor Board and ministry of information and broadcasting to issue directives to the filmmakers and TV channels, audio and video cassette companies etc. not to broadcast promos and songs of the films. The matter would come up for hearing on Jan 3, 2011.

FAITH makes all things possible,
HOPE makes all things work,
LOVE makes all things beautiful.
May you have all the three for this Christmas.
*MERRY CHRISTMAS*

Supreme Court of India orders for fast-tracking IPR cases

In a significant decision given by the Supreme Court of India recently, it has been held that the matters relating to Trademarks, copyrights and patents should be decided by the trial courts very expeditiously. This judgment is very important as it will instill sense of confidence of multinational companies in the Indian judicial system for Redressal of their grievances relating to instances of infringement and passing off of their intellectual property rights. They will have a confidence that their cases relating to IPRs would be decided expeditiously and they would not have to wait for several months and years to get a judgment in their case. The case is reported as M/s Shree Vardhman Rice & General mills vs M/s Amar Singh Chawalwala. For complete text of this judgment, you may email me at sg@sgsolicitors.com.

Supreme Court rejects petition of Reliance Natural Resources Ltd. in Ambani brothers dispute over gas from KG Basin

Supreme Court of India today on 7.5.2010 pronounced judgment in the much awaited Reliance case titled as "Reliance Natural Resources Ltd. vs Reliance Industries Ltd. and others" SLP (Civil) No. 14997/2009 (the arguments in this case were over and matter was reserved for orders on 18.12.2009). The Supreme Court ostensibly rejected the petition of Anil Ambani led Reliance Natural Resources Ltd. petition and upheld the order of Bombay High Court. The Court held that family MoU is not binding and directed RIL and RNRL to renegotiate Production Sharing Contract (PSC) within 6 weeks and to submited the renegotiated contract to the Company Court.
For the text of the judgment, you may kindly email me at sg@sgsolicitors.com

Copyright infringement alleged in the recent movie 'Atithi Tum Kab Jaoge'

As per a news report, a controversy has erupted now regarding the movie 'Atithi Tum Kab Jaoge' which was released in February/March 2010, starring Ajay Devgan, Konkana Sen Sharma and Paresh Rawal. Noted novelist and write Mr.Aabid Surti has alleged that the story of the said film has been lifted from his Gujarati novel 'Bauter Varas No Babo'. He has filed a complaint with The Film Writers Association (FWA), demanding Rs.1.15 crore as compensation.
On the other hand, the film's producer said that his film is inspired not from his novel but from another acclaimed writer Sharad Joshi's short story titled 'Atithi Tum Kab Jaoge'.
Only time will tell who is right.