Ranveer Singh's '83' can release on Hotstar and Netflix, says Bombay HC

Viewers will now be able to watch Ranveer Singh starrer Bollywood film ’83’ on Hotstar and Netflix. The Bombay High Court on March 16 refused to restrain Star India (owner of OTT platform Hotstar) and Netflix from streaming the film ’83’ on their respective broadcasting portals, while upholding the exploitation rights of Reliance Entertainment Studios.

Justice RI Chagla upheld the exploitation rights while hearing a plea filed by Mad Man Film Ventured Private Limited. The HC had to consider the exploitation of satellite and/or digital media by Star and Netflix.

Mad Man Film Ventures contended that in the light of consent terms, the ownership of intellectual property of the movie '83' was divided between itself (37.5%), Reliance Entertainment (37.5%) and Vibri Media, one of the producers of the film (25%).

Counsel for Mad Man Virag Tulzapurkar claimed that the exploitation rights of the film vested with the company for the period after the first cycle (which was the first 10 years after release of the film). He argued that as per the clauses in the contract, for that period, it was entitled to receive a percentage of the net collection from Reliance.

Tulzapurkar added that until such payment was fully received, it had no obligation to consent to the delivery of the film for exploitation of digital or satellite rights.

Due to the non-compliance of this clause by Reliance, Mad Man had not granted its consent to the platforms to broadcast the same and hence Star and Netflix were required to be restrained from exploiting their rights received through Reliance without Mad Man’s prior consent, said Tulzapurkar.

Counsel for Reliance Venkatesh Dhond contended at the outset that there seemed to be no challenge to the agreements entered into between Star and Netflix. As for the challenge against the alleged non-compliance of clauses, Dhond submitted that Reliance had all ancillary, non-theatrical rights for the first 10 years after the theatrical release of the film.

The OTT platforms argued that they had been granted rights through agreements which were not under challenge, and much prior in time to the consent terms between Mad Man and Reliance. They also contended that Mad Man’s contractual rights would begin only after 10 years, till which time Reliance had exclusive rights. In view of this, Mad Man had no locus to even file the present suit for infringement of copyright, it was submitted.

After considering all submissions, Justice RI Chagla was of the opinion that Netflix and Star already had antecedent rights, both digital and satellite, and that Mad Man could not claim IP rights over such rights.

Published on: Saturday, March 19, 2022, 09:46 PM IST