Kerala Court Passes Restraint Order In Infringement Suit Against "Karwaan" Movie [Read Order]

A restraint order has been passed in a suit  filed against the makers of the film "Karwaan" alleging copyright infringement.

The suit has been filed  in District Court, Thrissur by Sanju Surendran, a Malayalam movie director, who alleged that "Karwaan" was infringing the copyrights of his movie "Aeden".

He filed the suit stating that he noticed similarities in character, location, setting and treatment between his movie and "Karwaan" as per its trailer. According to him, "Aeden" has won a lot of accolades in several film festivals all over the world. In the suit, he moved an interlocutory application for temporary injunction to stay the release of "Karwaan".

It was stated in the petition that the director of "Karwaan", Akarsh Khurana got the copy of the story of the film from filmmaker Bejoy Nambiar, who was arrayed as first defendant in the suit. The producers of Karwan, Ronnie Screwvala and RSVP Movies were also arrayed as defendants

On August 1, the District Judge K.R Madhukumar passed an ex-parte interim order of temporary injunction under Section 68 of the Copyright Act as follows :

"In the above circumstances, it appears that there is prima facie case to restrain the respondents who were described as a person responsible for the movie Karvan. Balance of convenience favours the same. Delay may defeat the purpose of the suit.

Hence respondents are restrained by an interim injuncton from releasing or publicly exhibiting any movie picture which contains story, theme or screenplays having substantial similarity with the petitioner's movie by name "Aeden"".

The film "Karwaan' starring Irffan Khan, Dulquer Salmaan and Mitihla Palkar was scheduled to release on August 3.

The Petitioners were represented by Armour & Sword Legal Associates, with Senior Associates Suhood TS and Mr. Nabeel Manaf and Associate Neha Malik.