Bombay High Court Restrains Trust In Late Actor Dada Kondke's Name From Exercising Rights Over 12 Of His Films

The Bombay High Court temporarily restrained the trust named after Marathi actor-filmmaker Dada Kondke from dealing in the copyrights of 12 of his films.

Justice Manish Pitale passed the order in an Intellectual Property Right suit filed by Everest Entertainment Ltd against Shahir Dada Kondke Pratishthan and others. Everest contended it had acquired the film’s rights from Kondke’s heir Manik Padmakar More.

The court said it was prima facie satisfied that More had acquired rights in the 12 films, under Kondke’s probated Will and therefore restrained two different organisations from handing over the film’s negatives.

Senior Advocate Virag Tulzapurkar submitted that his clients “Everest Entertainment Ltd” were assignees of copyrights in 12 films based on a deed executed on August 12, 2022 between Everest and More. He claimed More had acquired rights films, on the basis of a Will dated 2nd January, 1998 executed by Shri Dadasaheb Kondke himself. The Will was probated in 2008 and an appeal against the probate was dismissed in July 2019.

Everest was constrained to approach the High Court as the film’s negatives were lying with Bombay Film Enterprises Private Limited and National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) Ltd and the trust was claiming rights over the films and seeking it negatives.

Advocate AA Garge for the respondent trustees submitted that a proper reading of the Will dated 2nd January, 1998, particularly the residuary clause, showed that the rights in the films are bequeathed to the trust. It is submitted that More was was not bequeathed with the rights of the films and therefore, there was no question of she assigning the rights to Everest.

However, while grating ad-interim relief, “The prayers made for grant of ad-interim reliefs for the present, appear to be reasonable and the balance of convenience is clearly in favour of the plaintiff. If such limited ad-interim reliefs are not granted, there is every possibility of further complications arising in the matter and the plaintiff suffering grave and irreparable loss,” the court observed.

It therefore restrained the trust from dealing with the negatives lying with them and also restrained the two organisations accordingly.

Case Title - Everest Entertainment LLP vs Hridaynath D. Kadudeshmukh and others

Case No. - COMMERCIAL IP SUIT (LODGING) NO. 10496 OF 2023

Click Here To Read/Download Order