Madras High Court Dismisses Netflix India's Application To Reject Suit Filed By Dhanush Against Nayanthara's Documentary

The Madras High Court has dismissed applications filed by Netflix's Indian entity - Los Gatos, seeking to reject the plaint filed by Dhanush's Wunderbar, in connection with alleged copyright infringement by Nayanthara, Vignesh Sivan, and others.

Justice Abdul Quddhose also informed the parties that he would be hearing the interim injunction application filed by Wunderbar on February 5th, 2025.

Dhanush, who produced the movie “Naanum Rowdy Daan” has approached the court claiming that some behind-the-scene footages from the movie was used unauthorisedly in the making of Nayanthara's documentary “Nayanthara: Beyond the Fairytale”. Since Netflix India's office is in Mumbai, which is outside the jurisdiction of the Madras High Court, he had moved an application seeking leave to sue the company in the High Court which was allowed.

Seeking to revoke the leave to sue, Netflix India argued that as per the provisions of the Copyright Act and the Letter Patent Act, leave had to be obtained for suing any of the defendants or any part of the cause of action arising out of the court's jurisdiction. It was argued that the plaintiff in the present case had obtained leave to sue only the 5th Defendant (Los Gatos - Netflix India) and only because the office was situated outside the jurisdiction of the court. He thus argued that the plaintiff ought to have obtained leave against all the defendants.

It was also argued that a picture of Nayanthara and Vignesh Sivan from the sets of the movie had been uploaded way back in 2020 and the plaintiff had not taken any steps against the same. It was submitted that the plaint itself was filed one week after the documentary was released which would show that there was no urgency warranting bypassing Section 12A (Pre-Suit Mediation) under the Commercial Courts Act. Thus, it was argued that the plaint itself should be rejected for non-compliance of Section 12A.

On the other hand, Senior Advocate PS Raman, appearing for Dhanush argued that anything that happened in the movie set belonged to the person who put in money for the same, which in this case was the Plaintiff. It was submitted that everything from the movie set was a bundle of copyright belonging to the petitioner and could not be replaced without his permission.

He argued that though a photo was posted in 2020, the cause of action arose only when there was a copyright infringement, which in this case was the unauthorized usage of behind-the-scenes footage. He added that as soon as the trailer was released, an email was sent to the defendants to desist using the footage. He also added that the suit was not filed till the release of the documentary since it was only then that the plaintiff could know what part of the footage had been used in the documentary.

He also pointed out that Nayanthara had signed a contract, for valuable consideration, in which it was agreed that showing Nayanthara in the costume and hairstyle would be the producer's copyright. Thus, it was argued that anything done by Nayanthara in connection with the film would belong to the producer Dhanush.

Case Title: Los Gatos Production Services India LLP v Wunderbar Films Private Limited

Citation: 2025 LiveLaw (Mad) 27

Case No: A 6748 of 2024