Chennai: The Madras high court has vacated its earlier interim order, which restrained All In Pictures and Goldmines Telefilms Pvt Ltd from exploiting B. Pradeep’s (Proprietor of Divya Movies) sole and exclusive Hindi and all other North Indian languages dubbing rights excluding Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam in the movie titled Gorilla.
Justice S.Vaidyanathan vacated the interim order with certain conditions including the one directing the Goldmines Telefilms to deposit Rs 30 lakh to the credit of the suit before the Registrar General of the Madras high court within one month.
Originally, contending that by an agreement, he became the exclusive owner of the Hindi dubbing rights as assigned by All In Pictures and re-assignment of the same rights to Goldmines Telefilms by All In Pictures would render in him and Goldmines Telefilms overlapping rights and huge monetary loss for him, Pradeep, proprietor of Divya Movies, filed applications arising out of a suit to restrain All In Pictures and Goldmines Telefilms Pvt.Ltd from exploiting his sole and exclusive Hindi and all other North Indian languages dubbing rights, excluding Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam in the movie Gorilla. The court had on February 21 granted an interim injunction. Aggrieved, All In Pictures filed the present applications, to vacate the interim orders.
In his order, the judge said All In Pictures has assigned sole and exclusive dubbing rights’ of the cinematograph film titled Gorilla in Hindi and all other North Indian languages, Dubbing copyrights with an exception to four South Indian languages for a consideration of Rs 2.50 crore in favour of Pradeep. It was also seen that the ‘sole and exclusive dubbing rights’ of the Tamil film Gorilla has been given to Pradeep for the purpose of literary work, which was an independent right, distinct from copyright in cinematographic film, the judge added.
The judge said it was not in dispute that Pradeep’s dubbing rights commence only after 90 days of the theatrical release of the film Gorilla and it has been stated by All In Pictures and Goldmines Telefilms that production of Telugu version would take considerable time. It was also not in dispute that the dubbing, remaking, production etc of the movie, if any made by Pradeep should be released only after 90 days from the theatrical release of the Tamil movie Gorilla. The issue raised in these applications, viz, Pradeep’s sole and exclusive Hindi and all other North Indian languages dubbing rights, excluding Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam in the movie titled Gorilla would amount to copyright infringement have got to be decided only after the evidence was taken, in other words, after full fledged trial. The interim order granted in favour of the plaintiff cannot go beyond the scope of the main prayer. In the suit, the plaintiff amongst other reliefs has sought for payment of liquidated damages of Rs 30 lak
h and even assuming that the plaintiff was going to succeed in the suit, he will be entitled to the liquidated damages, which according to him, was not less than Rs 30 lakh, the judge added.
The judge said the counsel for Goldmines Telefilms contended that All In Pictures has entered into a deed of transfer of copyright with it to acquire sole and exclusive dubbing rights in the Telugu film “Gorilla”, pursuant to which, it has already transferred Rs 50 lakh. He further contended that the plaintiff has no right over the film “Gorilla” either in Tamil or Telugu as the plaintiff has been given the right to dub, which was nothing but a right to translate a literary work and therefore, the interim order has caused serious prejudice to Goldmines Telefilms. “In view of the submission, this court is of the considered opinion that it will serve the interest of justice, if Goldmines Telefilms is directed to deposit `30 lakh”, the judge added.
