The Delhi High Court on Monday fined Ram Gopal Varma and his production house Rs1 million (Dh55,285.8) for remaking 1975 blockbuster Sholay, which violated the exclusive copyright its director Ramesh Sippy has.
Justice Manmohan Singh said that Varma and others, by making Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag, “intentionally and deliberately” violated the plaintiffs’ exclusive moral rights of copyright.
The court’s order came after a lawsuit was filed by Sascha Sippy, son and grandson of original Sholay’s producers Vijay Sippy and G.P. Sippy, alleging that the remake was in violation of the exclusive copyright held by the Sholay Media and Entertainment Pvt Ltd.
The fine was slapped on Varma, his production house M/S RGV Productions Pvt Ltd as well as Varma Corporation Ltd and Madhu Varma for “punitive damages” and stops them from using a character like “Gabbar or Gabbar Singh”, the villain from the original film.
“The publicity material coupled with the impugned film, gives an overall impression that it is a remake of the film Sholay,” the order said.
“The use of similar plot and characters in the impugned film coupled with use of the underlying music, lyrics and background score and even dialogues from the original film Sholay amounts to infringement of copyright in the film Sholay.”
The 1975 blockbuster featured Dharmendra, Amitabh Bachchan, Sanjeev Kumar, Hema Malini, Jaya Bachchan and Amjad Khan among others.
