MANISHA KOIRALA Vs. SHASHILAL NAIR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) FOUR scenes of four minutes duration in a film, titled "ek Chhotisi Love Story" is the subject matter of the present action. Heard forthwith.

(2.) APART from the facts as pleaded considering the issues involved, the film as cleared by the Censor Board was viewed in the presence of Counsel for the parties and the parties. The story is about an adolescent boy aged about fifteen years who is obsessed with the girl 26. The boy has the habit of peeping into the house of the woman. The day-to-day events witnessed by the boy are portrayed in the film. The story revolves around this infatuation of this adolescent boy with the girl and what he witnesses as a peeping tom; The girl is friendly with a man with whom she shares an intimate relationship. This emerges from the film. The plaintiff is the central character in the film, except for a few scenes which are the subject matter of the present action and which were acted by a double. The cause of action as pleaded by the plaintiff is that the defendant No. 1 in breach of contract has used those four scenes inspite of her objections and protest and thus breached the contract. It is then contended that the public at large would associate the plaintiff with those scenes. This will injure her reputation and consequently the tort of defamation. That action, it is contended, would also amount to torts of injurious falsehood and invasion of the plaintiffs right to privacy. In support of the said contention are the pleadings in the plaint, affidavit in support of the Motion and the affidavit in rejoinder filed by Madan Arora, Private Secretary to the plaintiff as also the plaintiff herself. There is an additional affidavit by Hairdresser Mrs. Maria Sharma. In sum and substance the case of the plaintiff is that when the shooting was in progress, the plaintiff drew the attention of the defendant No. 1 that the scenes within the house should not be of a nature such as to lead the viewers to believe that the plaintiff was exposing herself. The plaintiff contends that the defendant No. 1 mentioned that these scenes would be treated in a very aesthetic and moderate manner. The plaintiff then relies on the letter dated 20th April, 2002 addressed by the defendant No. 1 to the plaintiff, the contents thereof may be reproduced :--

(3.) THE defendant No. 1 has filed an affidavit in reply, the first on 20th August, 2002 and an additional affidavit on 22nd August, 2002. The case of the defendant No. 1 has been used as a Director and also a person carrying on business under the name and style of Paragon Pictures and also as producer of films. Defendant No. 2 is sued as a Laboratory which has custody of the prints and the defendant No. 3 as a Distributor of feature films and in the instant case has been granted distribution rights to the film. Defendant No. 1 in his affidavit sets out that he was making an art film on the limited budget which he could not afford to delay and had to be completed within a period of 20 days. The film was sensitive and bold and on a very small budget. For that purpose he wanted a new face and did not want an established actor or actress. As the film was to be a sensitive and bold film, the defendant No. 1 had a very clear story board sketched for this film. Except for the plaintiff the other stars are new faces including technicians. The film was to be made with a view to exhibit the same for international audience. The duration is of two hours approximately and with no songs unlike a traditional Hindi film and is an experimental new wave cinema. The defendant No. 1 was the story writer, producer, director and distributor of the film. It is his singular vision in all department of the film. All artisans and technicians were fully aware of all the scenes in every frame right from the inception of the film and has been shot on a very precise and definite format exactly as depicted on the story board. Each frame/scene was visualized and the story board was prepared and was given to all artists and technicians at the beginning. A new face to be the heroine had been finalised who had agreed to do the film after seeing the story board.