The Delhi High Court has today restrained noted film producer Vashu Bhagnani owned Pooja Film Company and Pooja Entertainment & Films Ltd. from interfering with the distribution and release of the films Anil Kapoor and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan starrer Fanney Khan as well as Shahid Kapoor starrer Batti Gul Meter Chalu, both of which are scheduled for release next month and are being produced by T-series.
The Hon’ble Court was hearing a suit filed by T-Series which claimed that Vashu Bhagnani was interfering in the release and distribution of these films by issuing baseless public notices asking various theatre owners and film distributors in the country to not enter into any agreements to release these films. Vashu Bhagnani had apparently also served legal notices to Bhushan Kumar’s T-series, Prerna Arora’s Kriarj Entertainment and Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s production house last month claiming to have acquired rights in these films from Kriarj last year itself.
The lawyers appearing for T-series stated in court that they had sent multiple replies to Vashu’s legal team last month itself asking them to provide a copy of these alleged agreements under which Vashuji was claiming to have got rights, however, instead of responding to such requests, Vashuji’s team started issuing public notices and asking film distributors across the country to not execute any deals with T-series or film’s producers. This, they argued, amounted an unlawful interference with the film by Vashu Bhaganani and was creating tremendous uncertainty and suspicion over T-series’ rights in these films, which was uncalled for and leading to severe losses.
When contacted, Advocate Neel Mason of Mason & Associates, who appeared for T-Series said that “Our case is quite simple. T-series is producing Batti Gul Meter Chalu and Fanney Khan with Kriarj and Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra Productions respectively, under written agreements, all of which were executed much prior in time than Vashu Bhagnani’s alleged agreements. These agreements prohibited Kriarj from entering into any agreements with any third party without the written consent of T-series. Therefore, any agreement that Kriarj may have entered into with Vashu ji’s companies, are void in law and cannot supersede our client’s rights. Our Client cannot be made to suffer for third-party agreements which are void ab initio.”
The Delhi High Court, while observing that a lot of such matters were suddenly coming up before it involving claims made by multiple third-party investors in these films, has restrained Pooja Films and Pooja Entertainment & Films Ltd. from issuing any notice or making any claims in relation to these films.
