HC: No stay on release of movie based on Sushant
The Delhi high court on Thursday refused to stay the June 11 release of the movie, ‘Nyay: The Justice’, purportedly based on the life of late Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput, saying that “posthumous privacy right is not permissible”.
The plea was filed by the late actor’s father, Krishna Kishore Singh, earlier this year. Apart from seeking restraint on this film and a couple of others in the pipeline, namely ‘Suicide or Murder: A star was lost’ and ‘Shashank, Singh had also sought an injunction against any future movie, publication, caricature, etc, based on the actor’s life. Dismissing the plea, the single-judge bench of Justice Sanjeev Narula said, “There can be no doubt that a limited class of celebrity rights which are protected as intellectual property rights under applicable laws, and are assignable and licensable under such statutes, could survive death of the celebrity.
“However, the Plaintiff (Singh) claims that the deceased celebrity has a posthumous publicity right. Since it is inextricably interlinked to and birthed from the right of privacy, the Court prima facie finds merit in the submission of the Defendants (filmmakers) that the posthumous privacy right is not permissible.”
The court said that “artistic freedom to create fictional works cannot be controlled, limited, or confined within set boundaries”. It said that “an artist’s inspiration can come from any source, and the court cannot filter real-life events”.
The court, however, directed the producers to maintain accounts of the film and listed the suit for completion of pleading before the joint registrar.