The Hindi movie “Thank God,” starring Ajay Devgan, Sidharth Malhotra, and Rakul Preet, will not be delayed, the Bombay High Court decided last week. Even though the movie’s release date was announced on September 9, single-judge Justice RI Chagla remarked that although the movie is scheduled to be released on October 25, the motion for urgent relief was not lodged until October 18.
A suit involving contractual disagreements between the two film producers was being heard by the court.
Azure Entertainment Pvt Limited, the plaintiff, has acquired the only rights to make a Hindi-language movie based on a Danish movie. In order to co-produce the movie, which was being directed by Indra Kumar, a partner of Maruti Enterprises, Azure was approached after acquiring the sole and exclusive remake rights.
The two companies then signed a contract promising to split profits in a 1:2 ratio. The two parties then signed a contract with Super Cassettes Industries Pvt Ltd (T-Series) company and jointly assigned T-series with 100% of the exploitation rights and 50% of the film’s intellectual property.
After that, Azure consented to swap 4.50 crores for its royalty rights worth 32 lakh and contingent royalties. Following this, Azure consented to stop working on the movie and forego any further compensation.
The lawsuit claimed that T-Series and Maruti had violated the agreement in material ways. The flaws were that viewers of the movie’s trailers believed that Maruti and Azure had not been involved in Maruti’s direct engagement of the laboratory, which serves as the story’s repository.
The violations had been of such a degree that Azure had been forced to renounce several picture rights without receiving any compensation.
The defendants have colluded with a clear intention to deprive the plaintiff of its entitlements to the producer’s fee payable under the contract signed,”
The Petitioner stated
Azure was also displeased that the defendants had not yet paid the agreed-upon sums of 4.50 crores toward the film’s production and 50 lakh towards Azure’s contingent share, even though the movie had already entered post-production.
This was a crucial requirement of the contract that had been broken. On October 18, Azure filed a motion with the High Court asking for immediate remedy; however, on October 20, the Court rejected Azure’s request.
The matter was scheduled for hearing on November 22 by the Court, who nonetheless ordered the respondents to submit their reply to the application.
Advocates MDP & Partners briefed, including Ashish Kamat, Anand Mohan, Nishit Dhruva, Lavin Hirani, Khushbu Chajjed, Shahbaz Malbari, and Varun Gopala Krishnan, appeared on behalf of Azure.
Maruti was represented by Senior Advocate Sharan Jagtiani, Advocates Hiren Kamod, Ankoosh K. Mehta, and Advocate Sarah Navodia, all of whom were briefed by Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas.
T-Series was represented by advocate Rashmin Khandekar and Megha Chandra, who were advised by AB Legal.
[Read order]
