Actors Dhanush and Nayanthara. File
| Photo Credit: The Hindu
The Madras High Court on Tuesday (January 28, 2025) dismissed an application filed by Los Gatos Production Services India LLP, an entity through which OTT platform Netflix reports its content investments in India, to reject a civil suit filed by actor Dhanush’s Wunderbar Films Private Limited against actor Nayanthara Kurian and her director-husband Vignesh Sivan regarding the dispute over the docu-drama Nayanthara: Beyond the Fairytale.
Justice Abdul Quddhose also dismissed another application filed by Los Gatos to revoke the leave that the judge had granted to Wunderbar to file the suit in the Madras High Court, though the applicant was based in Mumbai. The judge agreed with senior counsel P.S. Raman, assisted by Gautam S. Raman, that the applications filed by Los Gatos do not deserve to be entertained by the High Court.
He also listed for hearing on February 5, an application filed by Wunderbar seeking an interim relief in the suit it had filed against Ms. Nayanthara, Mr. Sivan, her Rowdy Pictures Private Limited, and Los Gatos for having used certain visuals related to the Tamil movie Naanum Rowdy Dhaan in the Netflix docu-drama.
Copyright infringement
In his affidavit, the director of Wunderbar Films Sreyas Srinivasan contended that neither Ms. Nayanthara nor Netflix was entitled to use any footage, including the behind-the-scenes (BTS) visuals, related to the 2015 Tamil flick produced by the applicant company without obtaining prior permission from the producer.
He said, Ms. Nayanthara had entered into an artist’s agreement with Wunderbar Films on August 27, 2014, vesting all rights of every kind and character in perpetuity with regard to her performance, appearance, likeness, name, and/or voice in connection with the movie.
“In view of clause 4 of the artist agreement, the applicant owns the copyright over all the artists’ performance in connection with the cinematograph film meaning thereby that if any picture or video of the artist is captured as long as they are in their character on the set of the cinematograph film, the copyright over the same vests only with the applicant,” the applicant asserted.
On finding the BTS visuals having been used without authorisation in the trailer of the docu-drama, Wunderbar claimed to have issued a notice to Netflix on November 9, 2024. However, it received a reply from Netflix as well as Tarc Studios LLP, the producers of the docu-drama, on November 11, 2024, stating that those visuals were personal in nature and not shot by persons commissioned by Wunderbar.
However, highlighting that Mr. Sivan was the director of the movie and that he too had been engaged by Wunderbar on work-on-hire basis, Mr. Srinivasan said, the BTS visuals of the movie had also been uploaded on the YouTube channel of the production house on October 22, 2015. He told the court that this issue was taken to the notice of Netflix in the subsequent legal notice.
Replying to it on November 15, 2024, Los Gatos told Wunderbar that it had entered into a production service agreement with Tarc Studios and that the latter claimed to be in possession of all necessary permissions for the footage used in the docu-drama. Los Gatos also reportedly told the applicant that any objection with respect to footage used in the docu-drama could be taken up only with Tarc Studios.
Mr. Srinivas also temporarily valued the loss due to copyright infringment at ₹1 crore.
Open letter
The dispute between Mr. Dhanush and Ms. Nayanthara had become public days before the release of the docu-drama on November 18, 2024. The actor had addressed an open letter to Mr. Dhanush on November 16, 2024, and posted it on her X handle.
The letter stated that she had sought a No-Objection Certificate (NOC) from Wunderbar Films, the producers of the movie Naanum Rowdy Dhaan, to use some of the songs, visual cuts, and photographs in her docu-drama as it was during the shoot of that movie that her and Mr. Sivan’s love blossomed. She accused Mr. Dhanush of not having issued the NOC even after two years of repeated requests.
Accusing Mr. Dhanush of harbouring personal grudge against her and her husband, Ms. Nayanthara also said, she was shocked to receive a legal notice from him seeking damages of ₹10 crore after the release of docu-drama’s trailer in which, according to her, just three seconds of behind-the-scenes visuals shot using personal devices during the shoot of Naanum Rowdy Dhaan had been used.
Published – January 28, 2025 10:57 am IST
