Mumbai: The Bombay High Court (HC) recently refused to stay the release of a web series tentatively called 'Mission to Pakistan' by denying ad-interim relief in a case involving copyright over the “initial concept” as well as the production agreement for the series.
Justice N J Jamadar was hearing an application in a commercial suit by Solflicks Filmworks Pvt Ltd (SFPL) against Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (ZEEL) seeking to restrain ZEEL from releasing the web series. The application also sought to restrain ZEEL from entering into an agreement with any third party and from utilising any intellectual property rights belonging to SFPL with respect to the series.
According to the suit, SFPL which is engaged in the business of content production, approached ZEEL in August 2018 through SFPL's predecessor partnership firm Ahaana Productions with an “initial concept”. ZEEL liked the concept which was based on a book 'Mission to Pakistan' and the two entities signed a development agreement in 2019 to further commission works and develop it further.
After signing the initial agreement, wherein SFPL was to be paid Rs 16.99 crore for eight episodes, ZEEL backed out, following which SFPL filed a suit in the HC.
