DSK Legal successfully advised, assisted and represented our client Red Chillies Entertainments Pvt. Ltd. (“RC”) in a suit filed on their behalf before Delhi High Court against Mr. Ashok Kumar/ John Doe, Twitter INC, Youtube LLC, Google LLC, Reddit INC and 35 Ors seeking restraining and injunctive reliefs against Defendants from committing any infringement in relation to its forthcoming cinematographic film “Jawan” or any part thereof (“said Film”), starring well-known actors like Mr. Shah Rukh Khan, Nayanthara, Vijay Sethupathi and others, directed by Atlee Kumar. The said Film is scheduled to be released on 7th September, 2023. This was inter-alia in relation to RC coming across 2 video clips which were leaked in relation to the said Film on Twitter and other social media platforms.
In said Suit, RC also sought anti-piracy injunction against the rogue/non-compliant social media handles/web pages (running over 13000) injuncting them from copying, reproducing, distributing, displaying online the RC’s copyright protected materials relating to the said Film including but not limited to still, clips, songs and other proprietary information in relation to the said Film through the intermediary Defendants.
The matter was argued extensively on April 25, 2023 for seeking aforesaid ad-interim/interim reliefs. Accordingly, after hearing, Delhi High Court (Justice C. Hari Shankar) passed the interim order dated April 25, 2023 in favor of our client RC and against the Defendants thereby granting interim reliefs against the Defendants (“Injunction Order”). The said interim order is further extended.
Subsequently, after passing of aforesaid Order in May, 2023 RC again learnt that illegally/ unauthorizedly recorded video clips running into around 45 seconds about shooting of action sequence of the said Film was available on the social media platform “Twitter” under the title “#Jawan action scene shoot” (“Leaked Video Clip”) on several twitter handles.
In view of the aforesaid Injunction Order, the Complainant had issued cease and desist notices dated 6th May 2023 to the Accused twitter users handles viz. (1) “AJ @unknwnsrkian”; (2) Nitesh Naveen @NiteshNaveenAus ; (3) Ghulammustafaak007 @Ghulamm76512733; (4) Arhaan @Arhaan05 and 5) Why So Serious! @SurrealZack. Pursuant to said notice said Leaked Video Clip came to be deleted from respective twitter accounts. In this regard, RC, through DSK, also filed a cyber police complaint before Bandra Police Station. RC believed that aforesaid Accused/ 5 Twitter handles are the main culprit and originator of the Leaked Video Clip and are responsible for violation of RC’s copyright in relation to said Film.
In view of the aforesaid, to obtain details of the individuals holding the aforesaid 5 Twitter, we filed an interim application before the Hon’ble Delhi High Court thereby seeking directions to Twitter to disclose the Basic Subscriber Information including the IP addressed, user names, registered email IDs, phone numbers, address and other relevant details which are in their possession with respect of the aforesaid twitter accounts viz: (i) @NiteshNaveenAus, (ii) @unknwnsrkian, (iii) @Arhaan05, (iv) @Ghulamm76512733 and (v) @SurrealZack. The Hon’ble Delhi High Court vide its order dated May 17, 2023 directed Twitter to provide the information as requested for in the said Application within 10 days from the date of order. Accordingly, Twitter provided the details inter alia Account ID, User Name, User creation IP, Login IP, email ID, phone number, etc. as available in their records.
On the basis of aforesaid information and in the background of aforesaid facts, RC, through DSK, filed a police complaint before Santacruz Police Station at Mumbai against aforesaid 5 twitter accounts and other unknown accused responsible for Leaked Video Clip. In this complaint RC sought to punish the accused under Section 379, 120B, 34 of the Indian Penal Code, for infringement of intellectual property rights inter alia under Section 63 of the Copyright Act, 1956, and also under provisions of Information Technology of Act.
After filing aforesaid police complaint, we also assisted and advised RC to record their statement before police station and based on the same and considering facts of this case Santacruz Police Station registered a FIR against accused under Section 379 of IPC and Information Technology Act and police is further investigating the matter. Registration of FIR was widely reported by media on 13th August 2023.
The DSK Legal team comprised of Mr. Anand Desai, Managing Partner, Ms. Chandrima Mitra, Partner and Mr. Parag Khandhar, Partner and for filing and registering police complaint before Santacruz Police Station, Mumbai we were also assisted by Ms. Pranita Saboo (Senior Associate).
In Delhi High Court, Sr. Counsel Mr. Rajshekhar Rao along with Counsel Mr. Nizamuddin Pasha were briefed in the matter.