Mr. Zubair claimed that around 2006 he wrote the script of the film "Once upon a time" and had it registered with the Film Writer's Association in Mumbai. He asserted that upon registration, he was accorded a registratio

CS Professional · Intellectual Property Rights - Laws and Practices · PYQS · December 2019
Mr. Zubair claimed that around 2006 he wrote the script of the film "Once upon a time" and had it registered with the Film Writer's Association in Mumbai. He asserted that upon registration, he was accorded a registration number: No.RNA-1856743. He claimed that he was looking out for producers, for conversion of the script into a film when he met Mr. Subhash Kapoor. As per him the meeting took place in and around May-June 2007 and agreed to convert it to movie. The pre-production work for making of the hindi version of "once upon a time", according to the him, commenced in and about July, 2007. Between July-January, 2008, several other producers had expressed interest in producing a hindi film, based on the script. However nothing happened as all such producers/production houses demanded transfer of entirety of rights in the script, which included derivative works, remakes and versions of films produced by them. Zubair was interested to grant a license to the producer to use his script for the limited purpose of making a cinematograph film in hindi language alone. The shooting of the film "once upon a time" commenced in December, 2008. 'The film finally completed on August, 2010. The film received excellent reviews from the critics and also won the Grand Jury Prize at the New York Film Festival, the film, did not do well commercially. As per Zubair the commercial failure of the film was on account of the producers not being able to provide wide publicity to the film. He claimed that since he got to know in March, 2013, that the producers are attempting to dub the film in Telugu, Punjabi, Bangla language and also, perhaps, were wanting to remake and/or adapt the said film, albeit, without his prior consent. Zubair feel betrayal and plan to take action against producer. Advise him on the following issues: Who has the rights with regarding dubbing of the movie?

Answer & Explanation:

As per the Copyright Act, 1957, the author has he right with regards to various economic rights. Since there is no assignment of his rights partial or fully, the right with regards to script sold to producer is with regards to the production of film. Section 14 of the Act defines the right of author and assign him reproduction, publication, performance of work, make cinematograph work rights. The same section provide the rights to the producer in case of cinematograph work the right to "communicate the film to the public" The Madras High Court in the case of Mr. Thiagarajan Kumararaja v. M/s Capital Film Works (India) Pvt Ltd. , decided on 20.11.2017 held that right to remake or make different version of film does not fall within the expression "communicating the film to the public" as this would entail change being made in the original script without the consent of author. The producer can't remake the subject film or make other version of the same film.

Topics: Copyright

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