West Bengal Court Restrains 'Zee5' From Streaming A 2012 Film Produced By 'Hoichoi' Parent Company 'SVF'

After Careful Consideration, Judge Srikumar Goswami, Commercial Court at Alipore was of the opinion that,

"The Plaintiff/Petitioner (SVF) has successfully established that a triable issue has been involved in the present application and it has been further established that streaming of the film "Chitrangada: The Crowning Wish" through the mobile application "Zee5" would cause business losses and damages to the Petitioner (SVF) and balance of convenience is also in favour of the Petitioner (SVF) as if no order is passed, the Petitioner (SVF) would suffer losses from the subsequent repetition of such event."

The case before the Court

SVF submitted before the Court that it had produced a Bengali cinematographic film, "Chitrangada: The Crowning Wish" which was directed by Rituparno Ghosh and was released on 31.08.2012 and became a box office success.

Further, it came to the notice of the Petitioner (SVF) that the Respondent/Defendant (Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd.) had published and made available the film ("Chitrangada: The Crowning Wish") owned by the Petitioner (SVF) through "Zee5" mobile application and thereby it violated the copyrights vested in the Petitioner (SVF) and the Respondent (Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd.) was making illegitimate profits.

The Petitioner (SVF) produced before the Court, the copy of the agreement wherein a film screening agreement between the parties and the said agreement was executed on 08.08.2013, however, according to the petitioner (SVF), the duration of the agreement expired on 07.08.2018 and license, as granted by the Petitioner (SVF), stood elapsed.

In view of the above, the present application was filed by the Petitioner (SVF) praying for necessary reliefs by way of granting temporary injunction so that 'Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd.' cannot distribute, broadcast and/or publish the above film in any form and in any manner infringing the SVF's copyright in the cinematographic film "Chitrangada: The Crowning Wish".

Court's Order

The application for ad-interim injunction filed by the Petitioner (SVF) was allowed and the Respondent (Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd.) was thereby restrained in any manner either by itself or through any person acting on its behalf from publication, broadcast or distribution of the film "Chitrangada: The Crowning Wish" in any form and in any media whatsoever till 25.11.2020.

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