Madras High Court Stays Re-Release Of Kamal Hassan Starrer Film “Guna” Amidst Copyright Infringement Claims

Justice P Velmurugan granted an ad-interim injunction on an application made by Ghanshyam Hemdev. Noting that the balance of convenience favored Hemdev, the court was inclined to grant the ad interim injunction. Meanwhile, the court also issued notices to the respondents, Pyramid Audio India Pvt Ltd, Evergreen Media Pvt Ltd, and Prasad Film Laboratories.

“Having regard to the nature of allegations in the affidavit along with this application, this Court finds that the applicant/plaintiff has made out a prima-facie case for grant of ad-interim injunction as prayed for in this application. The balance of convenience and irreparable hardship, have also been established by the applicant/plaintiff,” the court said.

Hemdev informed the court that he was carrying on the business of financing, production, and aggregation of copyrights in cinematographic films. He submitted that he had acquired the entire negative rights of 10 Tamil cinematographic films (including the rights of Gunaa movie) from one N Rathnam, who had acquired the world negative copyright.

Hemdev informed that while acquiring the world negative rights to the film, Rathnam was also given the sole and exclusive rights with commercial and non-commercial, theatrical and non-theatrical copyrights of distribution, exhibition, and exploitation of the movie in all gauges. Thereafter, Rathnam had assigned his rights to Hemdev and Hemdev had also obtained laboratory confirmation for the film.

Hemdev added that in June 2024, he came to know that the defendants were attempting to re-release the movie in Tamil Nadu. It was informed that though he had approached the Film Distributors Association, requesting them to intervene, the defendants re-released the movie on July 5^th, 2024 by producing a false and concocted agreement.

Thus, claiming that the defendants were unauthorisedly infringing his copyright, Hemdev approached the court by way of a suit. In the meantime, he also asked the court to temporarily injunct the defendants and their men from exhibiting and exploiting the copyrights of the film. The court has allowed this prayer and ordered it accordingly.

Counsel for the Applicant: Mr.K.Harishankar

Citation: 2024 LiveLaw (Mad) 279

Case Title: Ghanshyam Hemdev v Pyramid Audio India Pvt Ltd and Others

Case No: O.A.No.459 of 2024 in CS (Comm Div) No. 118 of 2024