The High Court of Karnataka on Thursday cleared the way for continuation of screening of Hindi movie Maidaan by staying the temporary injunction granted by a Mysuru civil court against the screening of the movie in any language in any form, including electronic, magnetic and over-the-top (OTT) media platform.
Justice S.R. Krishna Kumar passed the interim order on a petition filed by Boney Kapoor of Bayview Projects Private Limited, Mumbai, who is a co-producer of the movie along with Zee Studios Ltd.
On April 8, the Mysuru court had issued the ex parte temporary injunction against screening of the movie on a suit filed by scriptwriter C.R. Anil Kumar of Mysuru, who had alleged copyright violation by the producers of Maidaan.
‘Already in theatres’
The petition was filed in the High Court on April 11 morning seeking urgent hearing even though the court was closed for Eid holiday, on the ground that the Mysuru court’s April 8 order of granting temporary injunction was communicated to the petitioner at the last minute, on April 10, by which time screening of the movie in theatres had commenced worldwide as per the scheduled on April 10.
Denying plaintiff’s allegation that the film infringed upon his work titled Patganduga, the petitioner has contended that Maidaan, which depicts life of a legendary football coach Syed Abdul Rahim, is based on research work done by football journalist Novy Kapadia during 2017 specifically for the petitioner’s movie proposal and the script and screenplay written by the experts in the field through their agreements with the petitioner.
“Since the film being part of historical fact no one person is entitled to claim copyright exclusively in any manner,” it has been contended in the petition while pointing out that though work on the film began in 2017, it got delayed due to COVID-19. Even though many information on making of the film was available in public domain since 2019, the plaintiff approached Mysuru court in a dilatory manner on the eve of the release to simply cause harassment to the producers, it was alleged in the petition
Appearing for Mr. Kapoor, senior advocate Sajan Poovayya has contended that the order of temporary injunction is ‘cryptic, laconic, non-speaking and unreasoned order, without any application of mind and contrary to the principles for grant of ad-interim ex parte order of temporary injunction’ as contemplated under the Code of Civil Procedure.
There was no material placed on record in the suit to even remotely establish alleged infringement of the copyright, it has been claimed in the petition.
The plaintiff had claimed that he had registered his story in 2019 and he came to know that Maidaan is based on his story after seeing the movie’s trailer recently.
Actor Ajay Devgn plays the lead role as football coach in the movie, which portrays the golden era of Indian football during the early 1950s and ‘60s under coach Rahim.
