Madras High Court Closes Interim Application Against Usage Of BTS Footage From Dhanush's Film In Nayanthara's Documentary

The Madras High Court has closed an interim application filed by Dhanush's production company – Wunderbar Films, against using footages of his movie “Naanum Rowdy Dhaan” in Nayanthara's documentary movie “Nayanthara: Beyond the Fairytale”. Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy closed the interim application without any orders after noting the submission of Senior Advocate PS Raman, appearing for Dhanush, who said that the plaintiff was ready to proceed with the main suit itself. The counsel further informed the court that the suit summons would be served to the defendants in the main suit. The main suit was thus adjourned for hearing to April 9th, 2025. “It is common ground between the parties that the documentary has been exhibited since 18th November 2024. Without prejudice to the contentions raised in the interim application, the plaintiff is ready and willing to proceed with the suit on merits. Therefore, OA 958 of 2024 is closed without any orders,” the court said on Monday. The Actors have been in a tug-of-war since November 2024, when Nayanthara released a Netflix documentary on her life and marriage. Dhanush alleged that the Netflix documentary had used behind-the-scenes footage from the movie Naanum Rowdy Dhaan, which he had produced. Claiming that Dhanush was the owner of the BTS footage, he alleged that the footage was used unauthorisedly and approached the court. Since one of the defendants Los Gatos (which is Netflix's Indian Entity) had its office in Mumbai, which was outside the jurisdiction of the court, Dhanush had also moved an application seeking leave to sue the company in the High Court, which was allowed. Challenging this, Netflix filed an application seeking to revoke the leave to sue and argued that Dhanush should have obtained a leave against all defendants and not just against Netflix. It was submitted that the plaint itself was filed one week after the documentary was released which would show that there was no urgency warranting bypassing Section 12A (Pre-Suit Mediation) under the Commercial Courts Act. Thus, it was argued that the plaint itself should be rejected for non-compliance of Section 12A. The court, however, had rejected this application, stating that since a part of the cause of action arose within the jurisdiction of the court, the court had rightly granted the leave to sue by exercising its power under Clause 12 of the Letter Patent. The court had also noted that adequate averments had been made in the plaint for seeking urgent interim relief without exercising pre-suit mediation; the court could not reject the plaint in the preliminary stage for non-compliance of pre-suit mediation. Case Title: Wunderbar Films Private Limited v. Tarc Studios LLP and Others Case No: OA 958 of 2024

Madras High Court Closes Interim Application Against Usage Of BTS Footage From Dhanush's Film In Nayanthara's Documentary

Upasana Sajeev

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