JUDGMENT

IA 9516/2021 in CS(COMM) 246/2021

The issue

1. Who owns the copyright in the screenplay of a film, if the author has been commissioned by the producer of the film to write the screenplay? Is it the producer of the film, or the author of the screenplay?

2. This is the question that arises for consideration in the present case. The film in question is "Nayak", released in 1966 and regarded as one of the masterworks of Bharat Ratna Satyajit Ray, unarguably one of the greatest directors in recorded film history.

The controversy, in precis

3. Satyajit Ray was commissioned, by R.D. Bansal, stated to be the Karta of the plaintiff-HUF, to write the screenplay of, and to direct, the film "Nayak". Satyajit Ray wrote the screenplay and also directed the film.

4. Having already achieved artistic immortality, Satyajit Ray cast off his mortal coil on 23rd April 1992.

5. Sometime in or around 2018, Mr. Bhaskar Chattopadhyay novelized the screenplay of "Nayak". The novel was published by the defendant and released on 5th May 2018.

6. The plaintiff claims to be the owner of copyright in the screenplay of "Nayak".

7. The present plaint, therefore, alleges that the novelization of the screenplay by Bhaskar Chattopadhyay, and the publication of the novel by the defendant, constituted infringement of the plaintiff`s copyright, within the meaning of Section 51^{1[51. When copyright infringed.-Copyright in a work shall be deemed to be infringed--
(a) when any person, without a licence granted by the owner of the Copyright or the Registrar of Copyrights under this Act or in contravention of the conditions of a licence so granted or of any condition imposed by a competent authority under this Act--
(i) does anything, the exclusive right to do which is by this Act conferred upon the owner of the copyright, or
(ii) permits for profit, any place to be used for the communication of the work to the public where such communication constitutes an infringement of the copyright in the work, unless he was not aware and had no reasonable ground for believing that such communication to the public would be an infringement of copyright; or
(b) when any person--
(i) makes for sale or hire, or sells or lets for hire, or by way of trade displays or offers for sale or hire, or
(ii) distributes either for the purpose of trade or to such an extent as to affect prejudicially the owner of the copyright, or
(iii) by way of trade exhibits in public, or
(iv) imports into India,
any infringing copies of the work:
Provided that nothing in sub-clause (iv) shall apply to the import of one copy of any work for the private and domestic use of the importer.
Explanation.-For the purposes of this section, the reproduction of a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work in the form of a cinematograph film shall be deemed to be an "infringing copy".]}










of the Copyright Act, 1957.

8. The defendant, per contra, disputes the plaintiff`s claim of copyright over the screenplay of "Nayak". According to the defendant, copyright in the screenplay vested in Mr. Satyajit Ray. Consequent on his death in 1992, therefore, copyright in the screenplay vested in his son Sandip Ray and the Society for Preservation of Satyajit Ray Archives ("SPSRA", hereinafter), of which Sandip Ray is a member. The defendant claims to have obtained a license from Sandip Ray and SPSRA to novelize the screenplay of the film.

9. The core issue which arises for consideration is, therefore, whether copyright in the screenplay of the film vested in Satyajit Ray or in R.D. Bansal. More generally, as a question of law, the issue which arises for consideration is whether, in a case in which the author of the screenplay of