‘Sholay is no longer just a film, its an event’ Anupama Chopra
Sholay Media & Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. the company which owns all rights to the epic 1970s blockbuster, Sholay (featuring Jai, Veeru, Basanti, Dhano, Gabar, Soorma Bhopali & Kalia) filed a law suit, on 1st March, 2011 before the Delhi High Court, against telecom giant Vodafone, alleging copyright infringement over Vodafone’s sale of music and dialogues from the movie as ringtones/caller-tunes. On this day Justice V. K. Jain after hearing arguments of the Plaintiff stated that he was “satisfied that the object of seeking injunction may be frustrated if ex parte injunction is not granted. The defendants are restrained, till further orders, from offering ringtones/caller tunes of the film Sholay to its subscribers without prior permission/license from the plaintiffs.” The ringtones however are still advertised on the Vodafone website as of today.
Sholay Media & Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. has previously been successful in restraining Ram Gopal Verma from releasing a movie titled ‘Sholay’ which is protected by a trademark registration in the company’s name. Verma’s movie was subsequently and I’m told, very unfortunately, released under the title ‘Ram Gopal Verma Ki Aag’.
Subsequent to this suit, Sippy Films Pvt. Ltd. filed another lawsuit on 21st of March, 2011 against Vodafone’s sale of ringtone/caller-tunes of music owned by Sippy Films Pvt. Ltd. Interestingly this time around Vodafone’s counsel was present before the Court at the very first hearing and pre-empted an interim injunction by providing the Court with not one but two licencing agreements, that Vodafone had entered into, for the music, with both ‘Universal’ and ‘Phonographic Performance Ltd.’, which at times the Delhi High Court ‘readers’ like referring to as the ‘Pornographic Performance Ltd.’ (See last order of W.P. 452 of 1999) (hehe!)
Anyway getting back to the subject, the Delhi High Court posted the matter for further hearing without passing any order on the interim injunction application. Considering that both Sippy Films Pvt. Ltd. and Sholay Media & Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. are owned by the Sippy family, it is possible that such an agreement exists even in the first case where an interim injunction was granted.
However it must also be pointed out that the Sippy family was in the midst of a bitter family struggle last year, when Sholay Media & Entertainment Pvt. Ltd., which is effectively, controlled by G.P.Sippy’s grandson Sascha Sippy, sued Ajit Sippy and other members of the Sippy family for copyright infringement of the Sholay repertoire. The Delhi High Court had passed interim orders in that case in favour of Sholay Media & Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. The matter is pending trial before the Delhi High Court. Needless to say, these cases promise to be interesting as the movie itself.
