Bombay HC Allows ‘Disco Dancer – The Musical’ Event At London, Restrains Saregama From Temporarily Infringing Copyright Of Shermaroo Entertainment

A Single Judge Bench of Manish Pitale of the Bombay High Court on Tuesday temporarily refrained Saregama India Private Limited from claiming copyright ‘Disco Dancer’ in a copyright infringement suit filed by Shemaroo Entertainment.

Shermaroo  Entertainment had approached the Bombay High Court seeking interim relief restraining Saregama from exploiting the rights of the movie ‘Disco Dancer.' The plaintiff had approached the Court after it came across a preview of the stage play ‘Disco Dancer - The Musical’ on an Instagram post. The interim relief was sought since the show was scheduled to start on 16 November for 4 days in London.

The plaintiff had sent a legal notice to the defendants asking them to refrain from going ahead with the staging of the aforesaid musical drama based on the said film. The defendant replied to the notice stating that they acquired rights to adapt and use the story and characters of the aforesaid film, in September 2019 and that the musical drama was to be staged in March 2020 itself, in respect of which there had been publicity from 2019 onwards. The defendants, therefore, said that there was no substance in the legal notice issued by the plaintiff.

The plaintiff argued that they had acquired rights to the film through an agreement in 2011 and had rights over all the intellectual property rights including the theatrical rights. It was also argued that the legal notice was replied merely by stating that the defendant had the right over the film as per the agreement but a copy of the agreement was never provided to the plaintiff. Further, it was argued that the said promotion of the show was done only in November 2022 and that there was no claim in the argument that the defendant had proposed to stage the musical as far back as March 2020.

The defendants argued that there were agreements as regards the aforesaid film ‘Disco Dancer’ and rights in the said film in favor of the predecessor of defendant No.1 i.e. Gamaphone Company of India Limited and thereafter in favor of defendant No.1 since the year 1982. The advocate for the defendants submitted that the agreement of 2011 in favor of the plaintiff would show that defendant No.3 had only assigned rights in the cinematographic film ‘Disco Dancer’ and not rights pertaining to the adaptation or staging of musicals or dramas.

The defendants argued that the plaintiff had approached the court at the eleventh hour to restrain the defendant and that the theater in London had been booked for about a week and the production cost had reached a figure of about Rs.4.34 crores, involving a number of artists, thereby demonstrating that granting any temporary injunction, at this stage, would not be in the interest of justice.

The High Court after referring to the clauses of the agreement of 2011 in favor of the plaintiff stated that

“Having perused the above quoted clauses of the said agreement, this Court finds that prima facie all rights pertaining to the film ‘Disco Dancer’ stood assigned to the plaintiff in terms of the said agreement dated 11.11.2011 and that there is prima facie substance in the contention raised on behalf of the plaintiff that this would include adaptation of the said film in various manners, including dramas and musicals based on the content, story line and characters of the said film.”           

While taking into consideration the production cost and the number of artists involved the court said the musical show would not be affected subject to defendants depositing the entire collection of the show with the court within two weeks of the conclusion of the show. The Court said

“It is made clear that the ad-interim relief granted hereinbove shall not affect staging of the musical based on the film ‘Disco Dancer’ by defendant No.1 at the theater in London from 16.11.2022, for four days in a row, subject to defendant No.1 depositing the entire collections from staging of such shows, with the Prothonotary and Senior Master of this Court, within two weeks of staging such shows. This is subject to further orders in this application. The Defendant No.1 would be at liberty to apply to this Court for release of specific amounts towards expenses incurred for engaging the artists and other supporting staff, while staging the aforesaid musical at the theater in London. It is made clear that the payments that defendant No.1 is liable to make to such artists and other staff would not be withheld merely because the collections from the show are directed to be deposited in this Court.”  

Senior Advocate Dr. Birendra Saraf appeared for Shermeroo Entertainment and Senior Advocate Venkatesh Dhond appeared for Saregama Private Limited.