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 sc