Kapil Sharma, producers face Bombay High Court plea over music copyright issue

Copyright society Phonographic Performance Limited has approached the Bombay High Court seeking relief against comedian Kapil Sharma’s production entities over alleged copyright infringement in his Netflix programme The Great Indian Kapil Show, according to a report by Bar and Bench.

The suit filed by sound recording owners has named K-9 Films Private Limited, BeingU Studios Private Limited, Kapil Sharma, Bhavneet Kaur, Akshit Lahoria and Gurjot Singh as defendants, describing them as the production companies and directors associated with the show currently streaming on Netflix.

Justice Sharmila Deshmukh granted the defendants two weeks to file their reply to the plea. Appearing for Phonographic Performance Limited, senior advocate Sharan Jagtiani along with advocate Amogh Singh argued that the alleged illegal use of PPL’s copyrighted works was negatively impacting and would continue to harm its music business and reputation, the report stated.

In its plea, PPL alleged that the defendants had been regularly playing sound recordings as background music during live recordings of the show without obtaining the required licence. The application informed the court that three seasons comprising multiple episodes had already been shot and telecast, and that filming for the fourth season was currently under way. It further apprehended that sound recordings belonging to PPL would continue to be exploited during the shooting of the latest season.

PPL sought an injunction restraining the producers from publicly performing or communicating to the public any sound recordings assigned or exclusively licensed to it, including during live recordings of the show. The copyright body also sought the appointment of the Court Receiver of the Bombay High Court to seize, with police assistance, all devices and media containing the allegedly infringing sound recordings, including laptops, hard disks, pen drives and music systems used by the defendants.

Advocates Anand Mohan, Monisha Mane and Chandrajit Das, briefed by Parinam Law, appeared for K-9 Films, Kapil Sharma and the other entities named in the case, as per the report by Bar and Bench.