JUDGMENT :

Ravi Krishan Kapur, J.

1. This is a suit for infringement of copyright.

2. Briefly, the petitioners no 1 and 2 claim to be the owners of the copyright in ten separate cinematographic films namely ‘Nishijapon’, ‘Bibar’, ‘Tapasya’, ‘Achin Pakhi’, ‘Charulata’, ‘Mahanagar’, ‘Mahapurush’, ‘Joy Baba Felunath’ and ‘Nayak’ (the films) which are all immemorial Bengali films.

3. R.D. Bansal was a renowned film producer and had funded films directed by Satyajit Ray. Six of the ten films which form the subject matter of this suit were directed by Satyajit Ray and produced by R.D. Bansal. The petitioner no.1 (HUF) is the producer and owner of the copyright in the films. The petitioner no. 2 is also the legal heir of R.D. Bansal and the Karta of the petitioner no. 1 (HUF). The petitioner no.2 is also the producer of the remaining four non Satyajit Ray Films.

4. By an agreement dated 4 July 2017, the petitioner no. 1 had granted the petitioner no. 3 a license for telecasting the films for a period of eight years through wire and wireless channels exclusively within the territory of India only [excluding through Lok Sabha TV and the national network of India (Doordarshan)]. Significantly, te