RRR and The Elephant Whisperers did the whole country proud on Monday by winning Oscars at the 95th Academy Awards..If anything goes amiss, you won’t be able to syndicate the film to the right platform.Gitika Aggarwal.And amongst those revelling in the glory is the legal team behind the two movies, headed by Gitika Aggarwal, Partner at NeoJuris..Bar & Bench’s Jelsyna Chacko caught up with Aggarwal to unveil the work lawyers do behind the scenes of an award-winning movie, and how her team provided legal and compliance advisory to the two Oscar-winning films..Aggarwal is a 2006 graduate of Amity Law School. After working for a firm, she set up NN Aggarwal and Associates, which was later renamed to NeoJuris in 2009.She is known for her legal advisory to the makers of blockbuster films such as Baahubali, Saaho, Kabir Singh, Jersey, Pushpa, 83, Gulmohar, Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2, Tu Jhoothi Mein Makkaar and many more. .On her experience working with the makers of The Elephant Whisperers, which won the award for Best Documentary (Short Subject) at the Oscars 2023, she said,“During Elephant Whisperers, we were shooting in the forest reserve, so there were a lot of locals that we had to navigate through since it was shot in Mudumulai National Park amidst indigenous people who don't speak the language. Since the film was commissioned by Netflix, which is a very compliance-driven entity, to be able to figure all the logistics out seamlessly within a particular timeline is always a challenge. The stakes are always high and you’re constantly working outside your comfort zone to see the entire process through.If anything goes amiss, you won’t be able to licence it to the right platform. The documentary space is anyway very niche, and to find a home like Netflix where the production will get the opportunity to be consumed by a global audience itself is a prestigious challenge. So it was really interesting to get this done in a particular way and getting the mandates.".NeoJuris also provided legal advice to the makers of multi-lingual blockbuster RRR, whose song Naatu Naatu won the Oscar for Best Original Song. Aggarwal says,"RRR of course was one of the biggest productions that has happened in India ever. So all of the visual effects were done by dozens of different entities globally. Just dealing with those people - since you're giving up footage to so many people, making sure that your footage doesn't leak is also a big challenge. SS Rajamouli shot at multiple places. During the second wave of the pandemic, he was shooting in Ukraine. You have to make sure that everybody gets coverage health-wise, accident-wise and they actually don't get stuck there. It was all a big risk as we also couldn't shoot the scenes in India at that point. Since it was a multilingual film, there are so many rights to syndicate overall. It was difficult just to be able to track all of those rights, because there are many territories where Rajamouli has a fanbase… A lot of things are uncertain across the world. I pretty much had commercial discussions on every aspect throughout the film production. I was very involved from the inception. Even if there were ten distributors, for example, we had to make sure we discussed it only with a select few. I started that discussion with those people. What rights are we going to give? What type of rights are we not going to give?".Regarding some of the differences in the approach to providing advice for these two very different types of films, she said,"The process remains the same, but obviously the issues and the way it is structured is very different. In a documentary, especially this one, it is very difficult to pre-plan as there is constant improvisation. It just goes with the flow. It depends on what you're able to shoot every day and then you structure a film like that. In a big production, everything is well-thought through and planned in advance. In a documentary which is being shot in a forest reserve, there are animals. Any mishap can happen. So to ensure that everybody on the set carries the necessary equipment, ideating on what activities can be conducted and what cannot be. Since the documentary is big, it is very people-oriented.".Sharing insights on how important sound legal advice is to the box office success of a film, Aggarwal said, "It is extremely important. Today everybody is approaching the court at the drop of a hat. I with my experience have many, many examples to cite. For example in RRR, Junior NTR’s character is a dramatization of certain real incidents. His character is Hindu, but it takes on the attire of a Muslim ethnic guy. We had multiple cases addressing that…we had to ward them off at the last minute. These cases are generally taken in the small courts, but it’s just the timing of it. You just don't know where it could lead."On the legal challenges posed by RRR, she said,Now the film is multilingual, so we're selling in so many languages - Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada. These are the big Indian languages, then there are smaller, lesser known languages. Then you do the world syndication of rights, which entails subtitling and dubbing the film in multiple languages such as English, Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese and then you have to make sure the the languages don’t spill over, because piracy and data protection is a very big issue globally. The film releases at different points of time in different territories. Since we are selling the film we always have to ensure that it doesn’t spill over in the territories where it is sold. No producer pirates their own film. Overall we must have done 500-600 agreements for the film. So it was a very exhaustive and exciting process in that sense.".Today everybody is approaching the court at the drop of a hat.Gitika Aggarwal.Highlighting the aspects that make NeoJuris the go-to firm for filmmakers and production houses, Aggarwal introspected,"I think we have deep understanding of business. It's a very business-oriented advisory system. You just can't just walk in and say that I understand intellectual property rights. Integrating your knowledge of law and the knowledge of business and to be able to actually craft and tailor solutions which then works for people, that is really important. I would say that we have expertise in both these areas. Most times despite being a lawyer, I was involved in pitching ideas to sell the film. For example, once, we did a series and then I suggested there be a film also. It had two versions but different formats. This has never been done, so it was very unique and new to the industry."
RRR and The Elephant Whisperers did the whole country proud on Monday by winning Oscars at the 95th Academy Awards..If anything goes amiss, you won’t be able to syndicate the film to the right platform.Gitika Aggarwal.And amongst those revelling in the glory is the legal team behind the two movies, headed by Gitika Aggarwal, Partner at NeoJuris..Bar & Bench’s Jelsyna Chacko caught up with Aggarwal to unveil the work lawyers do behind the scenes of an award-winning movie, and how her team provided legal and compliance advisory to the two Oscar-winning films..Aggarwal is a 2006 graduate of Amity Law School. After working for a firm, she set up NN Aggarwal and Associates, which was later renamed to NeoJuris in 2009.She is known for her legal advisory to the makers of blockbuster films such as Baahubali, Saaho, Kabir Singh, Jersey, Pushpa, 83, Gulmohar, Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2, Tu Jhoothi Mein Makkaar and many more. .On her experience working with the makers of The Elephant Whisperers, which won the award for Best Documentary (Short Subject) at the Oscars 2023, she said,“During Elephant Whisperers, we were shooting in the forest reserve, so there were a lot of locals that we had to navigate through since it was shot in Mudumulai National Park amidst indigenous people who don't speak the language. Since the film was commissioned by Netflix, which is a very compliance-driven entity, to be able to figure all the logistics out seamlessly within a particular timeline is always a challenge. The stakes are always high and you’re constantly working outside your comfort zone to see the entire process through.If anything goes amiss, you won’t be able to licence it to the right platform. The documentary space is anyway very niche, and to find a home like Netflix where the production will get the opportunity to be consumed by a global audience itself is a prestigious challenge. So it was really interesting to get this done in a particular way and getting the mandates.".NeoJuris also provided legal advice to the makers of multi-lingual blockbuster RRR, whose song Naatu Naatu won the Oscar for Best Original Song. Aggarwal says,"RRR of course was one of the biggest productions that has happened in India ever. So all of the visual effects were done by dozens of different entities globally. Just dealing with those people - since you're giving up footage to so many people, making sure that your footage doesn't leak is also a big challenge. SS Rajamouli shot at multiple places. During the second wave of the pandemic, he was shooting in Ukraine. You have to make sure that everybody gets coverage health-wise, accident-wise and they actually don't get stuck there. It was all a big risk as we also couldn't shoot the scenes in India at that point. Since it was a multilingual film, there are so many rights to syndicate overall. It was difficult just to be able to track all of those rights, because there are many territories where Rajamouli has a fanbase… A lot of things are uncertain across the world. I pretty much had commercial discussions on every aspect throughout the film production. I was very involved from the inception. Even if there were ten distributors, for example, we had to make sure we discussed it only with a select few. I started that discussion with those people. What rights are we going to give? What type of rights are we not going to give?".Regarding some of the differences in the approach to providing advice for these two very different types of films, she said,"The process remains the same, but obviously the issues and the way it is structured is very different. In a documentary, especially this one, it is very difficult to pre-plan as there is constant improvisation. It just goes with the flow. It depends on what you're able to shoot every day and then you structure a film like that. In a big production, everything is well-thought through and planned in advance. In a documentary which is being shot in a forest reserve, there are animals. Any mishap can happen. So to ensure that everybody on the set carries the necessary equipment, ideating on what activities can be conducted and what cannot be. Since the documentary is big, it is very people-oriented.".Sharing insights on how important sound legal advice is to the box office success of a film, Aggarwal said, "It is extremely important. Today everybody is approaching the court at the drop of a hat. I with my experience have many, many examples to cite. For example in RRR, Junior NTR’s character is a dramatization of certain real incidents. His character is Hindu, but it takes on the attire of a Muslim ethnic guy. We had multiple cases addressing that…we had to ward them off at the last minute. These cases are generally taken in the small courts, but it’s just the timing of it. You just don't know where it could lead."On the legal challenges posed by RRR, she said,Now the film is multilingual, so we're selling in so many languages - Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada. These are the big Indian languages, then there are smaller, lesser known languages. Then you do the world syndication of rights, which entails subtitling and dubbing the film in multiple languages such as English, Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese and then you have to make sure the the languages don’t spill over, because piracy and data protection is a very big issue globally. The film releases at different points of time in different territories. Since we are selling the film we always have to ensure that it doesn’t spill over in the territories where it is sold. No producer pirates their own film. Overall we must have done 500-600 agreements for the film. So it was a very exhaustive and exciting process in that sense.".Today everybody is approaching the court at the drop of a hat.Gitika Aggarwal.Highlighting the aspects that make NeoJuris the go-to firm for filmmakers and production houses, Aggarwal introspected,"I think we have deep understanding of business. It's a very business-oriented advisory system. You just can't just walk in and say that I understand intellectual property rights. Integrating your knowledge of law and the knowledge of business and to be able to actually craft and tailor solutions which then works for people, that is really important. I would say that we have expertise in both these areas. Most times despite being a lawyer, I was involved in pitching ideas to sell the film. For example, once, we did a series and then I suggested there be a film also. It had two versions but different formats. This has never been done, so it was very unique and new to the industry."
