On Tuesday the HC heard for hours an interim application filed by Tarun Wadhwa, an independent film maker who claimed that Saregama had illicitly used his material to make a Marathi film on zombies, in his appeal, seeking a stay on the film release.
At the end the HC bench of Justices S J Kathawalla and Milind Jadhav said,“Since the parties have agreed that the above Appeal be finally heard on 3rd February, 2022,’’ Counsel Rahul Ajatshatru with advocate Karishma Shah for Wadhwa, on instructions did not press for the reliefs sought.
The HC placed the appeal for physical hearing and final disposal on February 3 and disposed of Wadhwa’s interim plea as “not pressed’’ and kept all contentions of the parties to the appeal open. Wadhwa’s contention in appeal is also to seek orders to take it down from screens, if he succeeds.
Senior counsel Virendra Tulzapurkar and advocate Hiren Kamod had opposed grant of any interim stay.
Last year a single Judge Bench of Justice Gautam Patel had rejected Wadhwa’s plea to restrain the release of Zombivli saying, “it is not possible to grant injunctions on surmises or suppositions.”
It is a well known proposition that there is no copyright in an idea and “pleadings must be precise and the facts must be clearly shown,” Justice Patel had said. Wadhwa went in appeal against the rejection and contented that he ought to be given credit for his work.
“When two ideas are developed, there are bound to be similarities. A sure test is to see whether a viewer or reader having seen both works unmistakably concludes that the later work is a copy of the original. Even if the two works are thematically the same, but treated and presented differently, there may be no question of copyright infringement. Incidental co-incidences are not copyright infringement. Infringement is established only by clear and cogent evidence,” Justice Patel had said.
