No Dhagala Lagali in theatres? Here’s the reason why Delhi High Court restrained Balaji from using it in Dream Girl
The Delhi High Court (“Court”) in the case of SAREGAMA India Limited v. Balaji Motion Pictures Limited and ors. decided that Balaji Motion Pictures, ALT Digital Media Entertainment Limited and Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (“Defendants”) have infringed SAREGAMA’s (“Plaintiff”) copyright in the song “Var Dhagala Lagali Kal” by including the song “Dhagala Lagali” in their movie Dream Girl.
The Plaintiff entered into an agreement with producer Ms. Sadichha Chitra (“Producer”), through which the Producer agreed to assign, in perpetuity, copyright and sound recording and underlying musical and literary works of all the songs of all the films produced by her during the period of November 2nd 1978 – November 1st 1979. A Marathi movie “Bot Lavin Tithe Gudgulya” was released during this period and included the song “Var Dhagala Lagali Kal” (“Old Song”) whose recreated version “Dhagala Lagali” (“New Song”) has been used by the Defendants in their film Dream Girl. Therefore, the Plaintiffs claimed that they continue to be the owners of the Old Song as per provisions of the Copyright Act, 1957 and that the Defendants by including New Song in their film are infringing Plaintiff’s rights.
The Defendants claimed that the song used in their film Dream Girl is completely different from the song of the 1979 film. Further, they also claimed that “Dhagala Lagali” is a marathi folk song which was sung as a rain song. The Defendants stated that only similarity between the Old Song and New Song is the use of generic verse “Dhagala Lagli”, other than that every part of lyrics is different. The Defendants argued that New Song forms an integral part of the film and therefore, if it is removed, the Defendants will suffer irreparable damages. The Plaintiffs countered the above arguments by citing Ram Sampath v. Rajesh Roshan case, decided by the Bombay High Court, which held that copying even a part of the song in which another person has a copyright amounts to infringement of that copyright.
One interesting fact in the case is that Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited, one of the Defendant has been paying license fee to the Plaintiff for playing the song in their tv shows. The Court stated that since they were already paying the license fee with respect to use of song in the tv shows, the Defendants were aware of the copyright of the Plaintiff. During the course of argument, the Defendants never claimed that they had any right or title on the song, to which the Court stated that the Defendants were liable to be restrained on this very ground itself.
The Court further noted that Plaintiffs were able to show that a prima facie case has been established in their favour. With regards to irreparable injury, the Court stated that even though the monetary rights of the copyright holder can be protected by giving the license fee but the right of the copyright holder to get credit for work cannot be protected by any monetary valuation. The Court noted that if the injunction is not granted to the Plaintiff, the damage caused to Plaintiff will be more than the damage caused to Defendant in case the injunction is granted, hence, the balance of convenience was established in favour of Plaintiff.
Therefore, to protect the rights of the Plaintiff, the Court allowed the appeal and restrained the Defendants from using/exploiting Plaintiff’s copyrighted work.
Quick View
As held by the Bombay High Court in Ram Sampath v. Rajesh Roshan, even if a part of a copyrighted song is taken, then it infringes the copyright of the owner. The Delhi High Court reiterates the position of law as decided by the Bombay High Court. Further, The Court holds that if the right to get credit of the copyright holder is infringed then it causes the copyright holder irreparable damages, which should not be allowed.
As for the application of the judgment, the New Song was not part of the film which released on September 13, 2019. The songs have also been removed by the official YouTube channels of the Defendants as of today.
Disclaimer: This post has been prepared for informational purposes only. The information/or observations contained in this post does not constitute legal advice and should not be acted upon in any specific situation without seeking proper legal advice from a practicing attorney.