The Bombay High Court on Monday granted ad-interim protection against online piracy of Namit Malhotra's Ramayana, restraining unidentified persons from uploading, streaming or distributing the film without authorisation ahead of its November 5 theatrical release.
Justice Madhav J. Jamdar passed the order on November 2 on a suit filed by Godpower Media Private Limited, which claimed that portions of the film, including its trailers and unreleased footage, had already been leaked online.
The suit seeks protection of the copyright in the film and its underlying works, including its script, screenplay, dialogues, music, lyrics, sound recordings, visual effects, characters, footage, stills and promotional material.
The film, directed by Nitesh Tiwari and starring Ranbir Kapoor, Sai Pallavi, Yash, and Sunny Deol, is reportedly being made on a budget of approximately Rs 2,000 crore for its first part, with the two-film series having a combined budget of around Rs 4,000 crore.
Senior Advocate Ashish Kamat, appearing for Godpower Media, submitted that the first trailer, which was screened at an invite-only event at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi on July 18, was secretly recorded and circulated across Facebook, Instagram, X and YouTube despite confidentiality arrangements.
A cybercrime complaint was subsequently lodged in Mumbai in connection with the leaks. The plaintiff further submitted that portions of the second trailer, released on October 15, had also been leaked before its official release. According to the plaintiff, at least 4,500 infringing links relating to leaked material had been detected.
The plaintiff apprehended that the film itself would be illegally recorded and circulated online as soon as it hit theatres, causing irreparable commercial losses, particularly during its opening weeks.
Kamat also pointed out that several links had already appeared online purporting to offer the film for free, even before its theatrical release. The plaintiff apprehended that these dormant links would become active once pirated copies became available.
Accepting that the apprehension of piracy was prima facie well-founded, the Court observed that the film and portions of it could be recorded, uploaded, streamed and otherwise communicated to the public through various online platforms.
The Court also noted that several High Courts had passed similar orders in cases involving apprehended copyright infringement.
Accordingly, the Court restrained the infringement of the plaintiff's copyright in the film, including by recording, copying, uploading, downloading, streaming or otherwise making the film or any part of it available to the public without a licence.
The Court further directed internet service providers and telecom service providers to block access to URLs carrying infringing copies of the film, including additional websites and mirror or proxy versions notified by the plaintiff.
Social media and messaging platforms were also directed to take down or disable access to infringing videos, posts, reels, channels, groups, pages and accounts, including further infringing content notified by the plaintiff.
The Court directed Godpower Media to communicate the relevant obligations to the internet service providers and platform defendants, who would then be required to take immediate steps in accordance with the directions.
The interim application will next be heard on December 16. The ad-interim protection will continue until then.
For Godpower Media: Senior Advocate Ashish Kamat with Advocates Rashmin Khandekar, Aneet Naik, Madhu Gadodia, Anand Mohan, Unnati Gambani & Vinayika Shahi, Parth Shah, Amartya Mody i/b Anand and Naik
For Defendants: Advocate Akshay Ayush a/w Sneha Jaisingh i/b Bharucha & Partners, for the Defendant No. 7; Advocate D.S. Patil, for the Defendant No. 9; Advocate Reeti Shetty i/b Hardik Sampat, for Defendant No.29