Bombay High Court Refuses To Stay Nawazuddin Siddiqui Starrer HADDI's OTT Release On Plea By Vivek Oberoi

The Bombay High Court has refused relief to actor-producer Vivek Oberoi seeking to stall the release of Nawazuddin Siddiqui starrer ‘Haddi.’ The movie will hit OTT screens on Thursday.

Justice Manish Pitale deprecated the petitioners for failing to approach the court earlier.

“As on today, this Court finds that the petitioners waited all along and when the movie was declared to be released on 07.09.2023 on the OTT platform of respondent Nos.4 and 5 (ZEE), they rushed to this Court seeking ad-interim relief for stay of release of the said movie.”

The court further observed that staying the movie’s release wouldn’t in any manner protect anyone’s rights and the issue as it stands could be resolved by claiming damages, if any.

“This Court has repeatedly deprecated the practice of approaching the Court at the eleventh hour to seek stay of the release of movies,” the order read.

Oberoi approached the High Court through his partnership firm Oberoi Mega Entertainment LLP in a plea under section 9 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996. He claimed, Oberoi LLP and respondents Sanjay Saha, Nandita Saha and Radhika Nanda were partners of Anandita Entertainment Pvt Ltd (AEPL).

The movie was originally supposed to be co-produced under the AEPL banner and it was titled Gunshe. However, the petitioners alleged, through Advocate Anoshak Daver that the respondents clandestinely siphoned this property into another company they formed called Anandita Studios Private Limited and Gunshe is now being released as “Haddi” on the OTT platform ‘Zee 5’.

As soon as the petitioners learned about the public notice issued by Zee Studios Ltd and Zee Entertainment Enterprise Ltd they began corresponding with them. But Zee continued to deal with the respondents, it was averred.

Advocate Hiren Kamod for Zee claimed that the main dispute was with regard to the company Anandita Entertainment LLP and the release of the movie could not be dragged into the dispute. The petitioners were clearly aware about the association of the new company with the platform. Internal disputes were unnecessarily being used to stall the film’s release, he said.

Respondents claimed the email exchanges were truncated and Zee has constantly, since May 2022, been asking the petitioners to show some material to assert their rights in the film.

The court subsequently held prima facie the grievance was against their partners and the movie’s release can’t be stayed on those grounds.

“On an overall appreciation of the material on record, this Court is of the prima facie opinion that the petitioners may have a grievance against respondent Nos.1 to 3 in respect of the amounts invested in furtherance of the agreement at exhibit F, but release of the movie cannot be stayed only on that ground.”

Click Here To Read/Download Order