Mumbai: The Bombay high court on Tuesday rejected the appeal filed by Bollywood film director Ramesh Sippy challenging a single bench ruling allowing the release of Sholay in 3D version.
A division bench of Justice SJ Vazifdar and Justice GS Patel upheld the April 1 order of the single-judge bench, refusing to restrain Pen India Pvt Ltd and its owner Jayantilal Gada from releasing the 3D version of the successful movie. Pen India has created the 3D version of the movie starring Amitabh Bachchan, Dharmendra, Hema Malini and late Amjad Khan.
Sippy had moved court challenging the validity of two agreements — the Deed of Gift of September 14, 2000 whereby Sippy Films Pvt Ltd had gifted to Sholay Media and Entertainment all the rights, title and interest in Sholay and an agreement of July 20, 2011 wherein the latter had given Pen India the sole and exclusive rights for the film for a consideration of Rs25 crore.
The suit filed by Sippy said that he was the first owner of the copyrights in Sholay and other four films like Seeta Aur Geeta, Saagar, Shaan and Andaz. He had also filed a plea for interim relief seeking temporary injunction against Sholay Media and Entertainment, Generation Three Entertainment, Pen Media and Jayantilal Gada from dealing in any manner whatsoever with Sholay.
It was claimed by Sippy that the defendants were guilty of infringement of his copyright. However, Justice SJ Kathawalla had in April rejected the plea for interim relief primarily on the ground that Sippy never bothered to get his copyrights protected and had rushed to the court for the first time in a 40-year period for securing the same.
