Producer Murad Khetani has approached the Delhi high court to seek a stay on the OTT release of Animal, claiming to be its co-producer with T-Series. His Cine1 Studios Pvt. Ltd. has filed a suit against T-Series to restrain it from releasing the film on OTT.
The suit claims that the film was jointly produced by the two banners. Under the agreement, Khetani claimed, he had a 35% share in profits and intellectual property rights in the film. The suit alleged that T-Series incurred expenditure for making, promoting and releasing the film and also received revenues from box-office sales but did not share any details of the same and also did not pay any money to Cine1 despite the profit-share agreement. The suit also mentioned that T-Series did not provide Cine1 with a copy of the agreement it entered into for the digital and satellite rights of the film with Netflix and Culver Max Entertainment (Sony Pictures) respectively and also did not give any information about the work titled Animal Park, a derivative work of Animal.
The suit contended that T-Series did not give Cine1 equal space in credits, promos, publicity and advertising materials of the film despite the same being provided in the agreement for joint production, and even the certificate issued by the Central Board of Film Certification did not contain the name of Cine1. What’s more, it alleged that while T-Series entered into an agreement with Bhadrakali Pictures (Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s company), the document was not shared with the plaintiff (Cine1).
Justice Sanjeev Narula heard the matter today (January 15).
Senior advocate Sandeep Sethi on behalf of Cine1 stated that T-Series had been collecting all the money but Cine1 had not been paid a single penny. He added that his client had a long-standing relationship with T-Series but that the latter had no respect for the agreement. His client, he explained, had regard for the relationship and the sanctity of the contract and hence did not rush to court. On the other hand, senior advocate Amit Sibal on behalf of T-Series stated that Cine1 had no skin in the game as it had not invested even one rupee in the film. He also referred to an amendment dated August 2, 2022, made to the original contract, by which Cine1 allegedly gave up all its intellectual property and derivative rights in the film and took Rs. 2.60 crore for the same.
The court examined the amendment and asked Sandeep Sethi whether he had been briefed about that. Sethi replied in the negative. The court then adjourned the matter till January 18 to allow Sethi to obtain instructions regarding the amendment. Sandeep Sethi said that his client, Murad Khetani, would remain present in court in person on the next date.