RADHA BHARADWAJ Vs. ELLIPSIS ENTERTAINMENT MEDIA LLP

JUDGEMENT

(1.) As the regular Court by an order dated 6 August 2019 has expressed its inability to take up this suit, the present notice of motion has been mentioned before this Court as an alternate Bench, to be taken up for hearing, as to ad-interim reliefs. The urgency as set out on behalf of the plaintiff is that the movie/film in question namely "Mission Mangal" (for short the "said film") is stated to be released on 15 August 2019.

(2.) This is a plaintiff's Notice of Motion filed in a copyright infringement suit. The plaintiff is before the Court with a case that defendant Nos.2 and 3, in the manner as set out in the plaint, are infringing the copyrights of the plaintiff in respect of a registered script/screenplay titled "A Most Auspicious Journey" owned by the plaintiff and registered in the United States of America, in producing the said film "Mission Mangal". The plaintiff has contended that the script of this movie being produced by defendant nos. 2 and 3 is strikingly and substantially similar to the theme, idea and concept as contended in the plaintiff's script. It is stated that following special features as contained in the script of the plaintiff can be seen in the teaser and the trailer issued by defendant nos. 2 and 3:

(3.) It is contended that all these similarities can be instantly seen from the teaser & trailer as issued by defendant nos. 2 and 3. It is the plaintiff's case that the plaintiff had entered into a Confidentiality/Non-Disclosure Agreement with defendant no. 1 on 20th April, 2016 with defendant No.1, so as to share the script with an intention that a movie can be produced in association with defendant no. 1. Also a Memorandum of Understanding to that effect came to be entered on 22 nd December, 2016. The plaintiff contends that when the said agreements were subsisting, so that the further course of action could be finalised, defendant no. 1 shared the script with defendant no. 4 and accordingly defendant no. 4 has received knowledge of the theme and concept of the plaintiff's script. It is contended that defendant no. 1 and defendant no. 4 in a collusive action appeared to have breached the confidentiality of the plaintiff's script and has exploited the plaintiff's script to be copied by the scriptwriter Mr. Jagdeeshan Damodaran, who now has associated with defendant nos. 2, 3 and 4 for production of the film in question "Mission Mangal". The case of the plaintiff is that defendant no. 1 has unauthorizedly disclosed the plaintiff's script to defendant no. 4. To support this contention, the plaintiff refers to correspondence between the plaintiff and respondent no. 1 and their representatives.