'Animal' co-producer Cine1 Studios moves Delhi Court, seeks stay on OTT release

Cine1 Studios Private Limited one of the coproducers of Ranbir Kapoors movie Animal filed a suit in Delhi High Court against Super Cassettes Industries Private Limited TSeries seeking direction to restrain releasing the movie Animal on any OvertheTop OTT platform any digital streaming platform or any satellite broadcastCINE1 Studios Private Limited Plaintiff claims that Super Cassettes Industries Pvt Ltd entered into an acquisition agreement dated September 11 2019 and a letter dated October 13 2021 and another agreement titled amendment agreement to the acquisition agreement dated August 2 2022Under the agreement the plaintiff agreed to assign its right of first refusal and last matching right to produce the second Hindi film to be directed by Sandeep Reddy Vanga to Defendant No 1 The parties agreed that they would each have 35 per cent ownership of the Derivative Rights and Intellectual Property Rights of cinematograph film to be so produced It was also agreed that the plaintiff would be entitled to 35 percent of the profit share The agreement and amendment agreement laid down various other rights and obligations in favour of the parties thereto as stated in the suit The plaintiff Cine1 studio claimed that the Super Cassettes consistently breached its contractual rightsSenior Advocate Sandeep Sethi appeared for the plaintiff in the matter and according to the suit Super Cassettes has not only released the film without the approval consent or consultation of the plaintiff but it has also incurred expenses for making promoting and releasing the film without the plaintiffs approval or consent and received revenues from box office sales but failed to disclose or disburse any sums to the plaintiffFurthermore the defendant has also failed to disclose the final cost of production for the film the suit statedAccording to the suit apart from the above financial breaches the Defendant failed to consult get consent and get approval from the plaintiff about the release of the preteaser trailer and other promotional materials for the film It also failed to ensure that the contractually agreed credits including logos are duly accorded and are of equal prominence in all modes of promotion as well as the film failed to get the censor certificate issued in the joint name of the plaintiff and defendant and failed to consult or obtain consent in regards to the marketing and publicity plan the suit mentionedSenior Advocate Amit Sibal who appeared for TSeries stated that an amendment dated August 2 2022 was made to the original contract by which Cine1 allegedly gave up all its intellectual property and derivative rights in the film and took Rs 26 crores for itThe bench of Justice Sanjeev Narula on Monday after noting down the submissions fixed the matter for further hearing on Thursday and granted time to the plaintiffs counsel to obtain instructions regarding this amendment agreementPlaintiffs counsel assures the court that their client will be present in person in court on ThursdayAccording to the suit the defendant has entered into an agreement with Netflix India for granting internet exploitation rights and Sony Pictures Networks India for granting satellite rights to the film In accordance with its consistent conduct the defendant Super Cassettes has failed to share any details regarding the same with the plaintiff it mentionedGiven the defendants conduct the plaintiff moves the Delhi High Court to assert that its contractual rights against the defendant ought not to be allowed to release the film on any digital or satellite platforms without first remedying the breaches committed by it according to suit Meanwhile Animal was released on December 1 in theatres The film directed by Sandeep Reddy Vanga stars Ranbir Kapoor Anil Kapoor Rashmika Mandanna Bobby Deol and Triptii Dimri among others Even after a month the film continues to run in the theatres Despite getting an A certificate and a runtime of 3 hours and 21 minutes the film caused havoc at the box officeWith inputs from ANI