Delhi HC Refuses To Stay The White Tiger Release Over Copyright Violation

The Delhi High Court on Thursday refused to stay the release of the Netflix film The White Tiger. The movie is set to release on the OTT platform on January 22. The plea for stay was made by American producer John Hart Jr alleging copyright violation.

An urgent hearing was conducted late evening on Thursday presided by Justice C Hari Shankar. The court then dismissed the stay application by the Hollywood producer. It stated that not a single reason was shown to approach the court less than 24 hours before the release of the film.

After hearing the case for more than two hours, the court came to the conclusion, "This court can't come to the finding, based on the material on record, that by making and releasing the film, the defendants have indulged in copyright infringement.”

After hearing all parties, the judge said, "I am prima facie inclined to agree with Sethi that if the release of the movie is stalled at this stage, it will cause serious and irreparable consequences to the defendants."

Further, the court added that the producer of the film Mukul Deora as well as Netflix is permitted to release the movie. However, they were instructed to keep detailed accounts of the film in case the petitioner succeeds in the future. So the court can proceed to determine monetary compensation by looking over the details.

The White Tiger

This upcoming movie is based on Aravinda Adiga's book titled, The White Tiger released in 2008. Priyanka Chopra, Rajkummar Rao, and Adarsh Gourav play the lead roles in the film. Its trailer was released a month ago upon which several comments surfaced online with regards to the subject of class divide discussed in the movie.

Advocate Kapil Sankhla, the representative of Hart Jr, reportedly said that a literary auction agreement was conducted between his client and Aravinda Adiga in March 2009. He added that the producer intended to make it into a film to be released in Hollywood.

However, Hart Jr got to know that Netflix was making the film and will be releasing the film on the OTT platform in October 2019. He immediately send a legal notice to producer Deora and Netflix to pause the production.

Sankhla, representative of Sonia Mudhbatkal who runs a US Production Company said that his clients were never given an impression that the shooting of the film has resumed in 2020 as all such works were put on hold abroad due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

He reportedly sought to stay the release of the film saying it will not cause any serious financial ramifications to the defendants as the movie is to be released on OTT and not on theatres.

Meanwhile, senior advocate Sandeep Sethi representing Deora opposed the suit. He claimed that the action arose in October 2019 itself. But since the petitioners have approached the court at the 11th hour, this is not permissible.

Sethi accused Hart Jr of concealing several relevant documents from the court. He further said that no cause granting an ad-interim injunction was made out. Advocate Saikrishna Rajagopal representing Netflix proceed to provided arguments favouring Sethi's points.

Rajagopal added that the OTT film release involves huge finances and goodwill and no stay should be granted.