Telangana court slaps ₹10 lakh costs on plea against Amitabh Bachchan starrer 'Jhund'

The Ranga Reddy Court at Kukatpally in Telangana dismissed a petition by independent filmmaker Nandi Chinni Kumar seeking recall of a January 2021 order where the suit for damages filed by him was disposed of as withdrawn pursuant to a settlement agreement [Nandi Chinni Kumar v Akhilesh Prakash Paul]..The Court also imposed a cost of ₹10 lakh on Kumar which has to be deposited with the PM Cares Fund..The plea claimed that the settlement agreement was based on fraud and misrepresentation, thus he sought recall of the order and effectively an injunction on the release of the film “Jhund”, slated to release on March 4, 2022 in theatres worldwide..The settlement agreement was entered into between the parties during the pendency of the litigation initiated by Kumar, who claimed that he had purchased the right to make a movie about the life of football player Akhilesh Paul..In April 2018, Kumar came to know that the life of Vijay Barse who coached Paul's team, was being made into a movie by Super Cassettes.Kumar then approached the civil court contending that the movie 'Jhund' will have substantial elements from the life of Paul, on whose life story Kumar owns copyright.The trial court, on September 17, 2020, ruled in favour of Kumar and restrained Super Cassettes from exhibiting the movie till the conclusion of the case. This order was upheld by the Telangana High Court on October 19, and in appeal the Supreme Court declined to lift the stay granted..It was Kumar's submission in the present case that after the top court’s refusal to interfere, the defendants approached him for an out-of-court settlement multiple times, and after several negotiations he accepted the terms and withdrew all cases..However, the defendants failed to keep up their end of the bargain. Thus, Kumar urged the trial court to recall the order disposing of the earlier petition submitting that not doing so would cause irreparable damage to the petitioner..The trial court, however, refused to this prayer while imposing costs on Kumar to be paid to the PM Cares Fund within 30 days. In case of failure to pay the amount, the District Collector can recover the same within 30 days, the Court said..Super Cassettes (T-Series) was represented by Senior Advocate L. Ravichandar instructed by Ameet Naik and Madhu Gadodia of Naik Naik & Co.