Madras High Court refuses to restrain OTT release of Tamil film Valimai

The Madras High Court has refused to restrain the Over The Top (OTT) and television release of Tamil movie Valimai in a copyright-infringement suit filed by the makers of another Tamil movie, Metro [J Jayakrishnan v Bayview Projects Limited Liability Partnership]..Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy held that there was no doubt that the balance of convenience was not in favour of granting interim injunction.“If an order of interim injunction is granted, undoubtedly, great hardship and loss would be caused to the respondents, and this would far outweigh the prejudice to the applicants,” the Court said..It was the single-judge’s opinion that the producers Metro had exploited their copyright through multiple modes, and thus, substantially monetised it. The theatrical release of Valimai had happened on February 24..The plea for interim relief was filed in a copyright-infringement suit where the applicants claimed that Valimai was a substantial copy of Metro.The applicants asserted that a substantial number of social media users and reviewers, who watched both the movies, arrived at the conclusion that there were substantial similarities between the movies..The respondents, however, stressed that no credibility could be attached to social media posts on Twitter since even the identity of the person tweeting was not known. The respondent highlighted substantial differences between the movies..The respondent submitted that the suit had a hidden agenda to garner publicity for Metro since its contract with Netflix was expiring.The comparison made by the applicants largely pertained to ideas and concepts over which no copyright exists, the respondents stated. Consequently, it was contended that the applicants failed to even make out a prima facie case..Disposing the plea for an injunction, the High Court directed that separate accounts to be maintained with regard to Valimai’s revenue and profits through the exploitation of OTT and television, including satellite, rights in case the Court were to call upon the production of the same later in the suit..With this, the main suit was listed for hearing on April 12.[Read Order]