TELEFILMS PVT LTD Vs. ACHLA SABHARWAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Sheela is a 1987 Hindi motion picture. It starred, among others, Nana Patekar, Ranjeeta, Shahila Chaddha, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Paintal and others. Its producer was BS Dwarakish ( "Dwarakish "), the sole proprietor of M/s Dwarakish Chitra, based in Chennai. The Hindi version is a remake of a Kannada original with the title Africadalli Sheela. As the producer, Dwarakish originally held the copyright in Sheela.

(2.) The Plaintiff ( "Goldmines ") is a media entertainment company. The Defendant ( "Sabharwal ") is the sole proprietor of an enterprise called Media International, apparently also in much the same business as Goldmines.

(3.) The contest in this commercial intellectual property suit is which of the parties, Goldmines or Sabharwal, is the true assignee of the copyright in Sheela. Both claim to have agreements of assignment: Sabharwal's is later but is directly from Dwarakish. Goldmines claims a derivative title through intervening assignees and says that its predecessors took assignments long before Sabharwal. Nothing, therefore, remained with Dwarakish to assign to Sabharwal or anyone else. Both claim to have exploited copyright without protest from the other. At a very late stage, Goldmines has an affidavit from Dwarakish affirming his transactions with Goldmines' predecessors-in-title but saying nothing at all about his subsequent transaction with Sabharwal.