‘THE WHITE TIGER’: VETERAN HOLLYWOOD PRODUCER JOHN HART DRAGS MUKUL DEORA TO COURT OVER COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT VIA “A WEB OF OFFSHORE ENTITIES” | 2 February, 2021

Legendary Hollywood producer of multiple Emmy-, Grammy-, Oscar- and Tony-nominated and winning films, TV and Broadway productions, John Hart, and his producing partner, Sonia Mudbhatkal (India’s first Tony-nominated producer), have jointly filed a case in the Delhi high court against film financier Mukul Deora, son of late politician Murli Deora and brother of politician Milind Deora, for allegedly duping them by illegally producing The White Tiger, which is currently streaming on Netflix. The court has not granted them an ad interim injunction for stalling the release of the Netflix film, primarily because they approached the court at the eleventh hour in spite of being aware of the alleged wrong-doing in advance. However, a long-drawn court battle is not ruled out. What’s more, the court has asked the defendants, Mukul Deora and Netflix, to keep an account of the profits from the film so that the amount to be recompensed to Hart and Mudbhatkal would be accounted for and available, in case the need arose.

For those who came in late, John Hart has made over a dozen movies on books based on social realism including the 2008 Oscar-nominated Revolutionary Road starring Oscar-winning actors Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio and directed by Oscar-winning director Sam Mendes, Boys Don’t Cry, a 1999 biographical film starring debutante Hilary Swank who won the Best Actress Oscar for her debut performance as a transgender hero in the film, and You Can Count On Me, the 2000 Oscar-nominated drama starring Laura Linney (who got an Oscar nomination for Best Actress for her role), Mark Ruffalo and Matthew Broderick, among many others. Hart’s films have received seven Academy Award nominations and wins, 10 Golden Globe nominations and wins, and 16 Independent Spirit Award nominations and wins. Hart is also one of Broadway’s legendary producers whose successes include the longest-running musical in the history of Broadway theatre, Chicago ($681 million box-office) which is running till date, the musical Once which won eight Tony Awards including Best New Musical 2012, and the musical The Band’s Visit which won 10 Tony Awards including Best New Musical 2018. His Broadway productions have been nominated for over 75 Tony Awards and won over 30 Tony Awards and have personally garnered him six Tonys for Best Production.

Hart and Mudbhatkal are also currently in the running for six Tony awards for their Broadway production, The Sound Inside, including Best Play for themselves, the winners of which will be announced at the upcoming Tony awards ceremony to be held sometime this year.

The current case relates to the rights of the second-highest-selling Man Booker prize-winning book in its history, Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger, on which the film, which is streaming on Netflix, is based.

The case of the petitioners, narrated to Information by the petitioners (John Hart & Sonia Mudbhatkal), in detail:

John Hart had bought the rights of the best-selling and award-winning book in Hollywood on March 4, 2009 from author Aravind Adiga, merely 10 days after a similar story based on another Indian book, Slumdog Millionaire, won eight Oscars and garnered $379 million box-office (with an overall revenue estimated at over a billion dollars). Subsequently, in July 2010, Hart invited ex-Sony, -Warner and -Fox motion picture studio executive from Los Angeles, Sonia Mudbhatkal, to launch her producing career with him on The White Tiger. Mukul Deora was an acquaintance of Mudbhatkal, who wanted a break in Hollywood as a film financier and insisted that he replace Sonia’s development financier for The White Tiger. After initially refusing Deora any access to her and Hart’s project, The White Tiger, Mudbhatkal finally relented to Deora’s request in October 2010, and Deora and Mudbhatkal decided to set up a 50/50 partnership where she would bring in her producing debut, The White Tiger, into their newly set-up company, Smiling Tree Media Ventures (formerly known as Watchtower Media Ventures), and Deora would be the development and overhead financier for the same. Mudbhatkal’s role was that of the day-to-day producer and CEO running the entire operation which she did for the following three years out of her own office premises, with Deora being a passive financier with no day-to-day operational role or producing duties on The White Tiger.

Deora assured Mudbhatkal that his CA (Sharad Seksaria) would form the company in India while Mudbhatkal left for New York to do her producing deal with Hart in October 2010. However, Seksaria and Mukul subsequently formed the company on their own names only, while misrepresenting to Mudbhatkal all the time that her company, Smiling Tree Media Ventures, had been set up in India as per Deora and Mudbhatkal’s 50/50 equity deal terms. Incidentally, smilingtree.com is a website owned by Mudbhatkal since 2003 in anticipation of setting up her own production company by the same name in the future. Mudbhatkal had already executed the development financing and production deal with Hart’s book rights holding entity, Rooster Coop (named after the famous term used in the book itself), and what she thought was her company, Smiling Tree Media Ventures, in October 2010, when she found out about Deora and Seksaria’s misrepresentation regarding her 50 percent ownership in Smiling Tree sometime in January 2011. She was subsequently assured by Deora that Seksaria had innocently “lost her signed incorporation papers” and that this “small, technical” misstep would be corrected. Towards correcting this “misstep”, Deora and Mudbhatkal set up another entity, Continuum Media Private Limited that reflected their original 50/50 equity partnership specifically to produce The White Tiger, in July 2011. In August 2011, Hollywood writer and director Todd Field, who has directed Oscar-nominated and -winning movies like In The Bedroom and Little Children, had even come for the first shooting schedule of The White Tiger in Delhi, executed by Continuum Media Private Limited, Deora and Mudbhatkal’s 50/50 entity, with Mudbhatkal being the only day-to-day producer executing the shooting.

Meanwhile, in September 2011, Hart and his business partner, Patrick Milling Smith, were separating, and as both, Hart and Milling Smith, wanted to lead-produce The White Tiger, Mudbhatkal and Archie Cox Jr. (anchor investor of Rooster Coop, the company that owns the book rights) had to intervene and mediate a settlement between the two partners, where it was decided that the filming rights of The White Tiger would go to Hart under such a separation deal, which was successfully executed single-handedly by Mudbhatkal over a period of two years between September 2011 and November 2013. The film was to be jointly produced by its lead producer, Hart, his producing partner, Mudbhatkal, and her development financier, Deora, following Milling Smith’s exit under such a settlement post-November 2013. However, unbeknownst to Hart and Mudbhatkal, Deora had set up a company in India, called Glowbox Media, in May 2013 with the alleged objective to defraud Hart and Mudbhatkal of their copyright and producing rights of The White Tiger by taking advantage of their trust in him and the separation of Hart and Milling Smith, which Deora’s partner, Mudbhatkal, was given singular charge of by Hart and Archie Cox Jr. to execute.

The elaborate scheme by Deora and Seksaria involved them requesting Hart and Mudbhatkal to do Deora “a big favour” and get all the Hart and Milling Smith separation agreements signed in favour of a new Irish entity called Particle Media which would be owned by an entity called Transatlantic Media which, in turn, would be owned by an individual named Raj Lakhani, who Hart and Mudbhatkal have never seen or met till date, and who, they trusted their producing partner, Deora, had honestly represented to them, was a representative of Private Equity firm Centrum, the owner of which, Chandir Gidwani, was in the process of raising hundreds of crores for Deora and, therefore, Hart and Mudbhatkal would be doing Deora a huge favour if Mudbhatkal could draft and execute all agreements in favour of this Private Equity fund-raising vehicle for Deora in exchange of Hart, Mudbhatkal and Deora’s producing deals as condition precedent agreements to be done with such an entity, without the execution of which condition precedent agreements, no book rights transfer into Particle would come into effect.

However, it is using these incomplete Irish entity agreements which were only but one part of a whole transaction (set of agreements) to be executed between Hart, Mudbhatkal and Deora, and which was acquired from Hart and Mudbhatkal via fraud and misrepresentation, that Mukul Deora allegedly illegally claimed The White Tiger book rights as solely his own when approaching Netflix and failed to reveal to the streaming giant that he is yet to complete his end of the entire set of obligatory agreements in exchange with the original producers of the film for any such book rights transfer into Particle to take effect. Mukul Deora then allegedly assigned such incomplete, ineffective and fraudulently obtained book rights agreements to another shell company he formed in Singapore, called Lava Media, on or about 2017 which, in turn, is owned by Glowbox Media, the Indian company he had set up in May 2013 long before the Hart and Milling Smith separation agreements were drafted and executed by Mudbhatkal on behalf of Hart, herself and Deora. Glowbox Media is owned by Mukul Deora and his wife, Nitasha Thapar, and the directors are Seksaria, Deora and Thapar.

In this manner, Deora had allegedly set up a web of companies globally for just one project, The White Tiger — from Smiling Tree and Continuum Media in India, to Transatlantic Media and Particle Media in Ireland (with Deora as the sole beneficiary but Raj Lakhani as the owner on paper, to make it difficult for Hart and Mudbhatkal to track him down because Raj Lakhani is a British passport holder and a Hong Kong resident), to Lava Media in Singapore and finally circling neatly back to Glowbox Media in India, when the “corporate veil” referred to in the Delhi high court judgement was lifted. Six companies set up all over the world allegedly only to systematically try and subvert the rights of the original copyright owners and producers of The White Tiger.

There was a similar case that happened in Hollywood a few years ago when the Malaysian politician’s kin, Riza Aziz, was refused an Oscar nomination for The Wolf Of Wall Street on a film he had financed but not creatively been the day-to-day producer of and had given himself a Producer credit for, with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences making the distinction between a Producer and a Financier very clear in stating in no uncertain terms that the Academy Award is not for sale and cannot go to financiers who “hijack” the real day-to-day Producer’s artistic credit. Riza Aziz was subsequently arrested over money-laundering charges which led to the shutting down of the Swiss Bank, BSI Bank, Singapore in 2016. This Swiss Bank, BSI, is allegedly the same bank that Mukul Deora and Raj Lakhani used to transfer Deora’s development finance of $1 million to Rooster Coop in November 2013, the source of funds of which is yet to be ascertained by Hart and Mudbhatkal despite repeated written requests for the same from Deora and Seksaria, in yet another breach of Deora’s original terms of engagement with Hart and Mudbhatkal.

Although the unfortunate part for Hart and Mudbhatkal was that the Delhi high court on January 21, 2021 refused to grant ad interim injunction on the release of the film on Netflix, it did proceed with the suit by issuing summons to the defendants viz. Mukul Deora, Netflix, Seksaria and others, after careful examination of the preliminary material on record. The court also directed the defendants to keep detailed accounts of the profits from the film. The matter is next listed before the high court on March 22, 2021. The film began streaming from January 22, 2021.

Some noteworthy points which may stand Hart and Mudbhatkal in good stead in court are:

(i) The high court order dated January 21, 2021 talks about Clause 10 of the book rights agreement between the author, Aravind Adiga, and John Hart, which specifically legally protects both, the author and the original producer, Hart, from any assignment of the book rights to any entity other than one owned and/or controlled by Hart, as it specifically mentions that no replacement of John Hart as a Producer of the film can be undertaken without the simultaneous and mutual written approval of Aravind and John. Since Mudbhatkal executed all the agreements in favour of Particle with the understanding that any book rights transfer from Rooster Coop to Particle is in any case Condition Precedent on Hart’s subsequent producing deal with Particle, she had taken no such simultaneous and mutual written approval required not to materially breach Clause 10 of the book rights agreement (which would be in material breach if John Hart was to be replaced with Raj Lakhani as a new producer of the film).

Clause 10 also specifically mentions that the author, Aravind Adiga, did not want Mira Nair or Deepa Mehta or Sooni Taraporevala to be Producers/Directors of the film. If such accomplished Indian names in Hollywood, as the aforementioned, were to be kept out and not upto Aravind’s mark for Producing his book, inexperienced (in the film business) persons like Mukul Deora or Raj Lakhani would, obviously, be mutually rejected by both, Aravind and John Hart (who would also never agree to replace himself against his own interest and passion for producing The White Tiger after going through a two-year battle with his partner, Milling Smith, for the same book rights) even in case any such simultaneous and mutual written approval was sought by Deora from Aravind and John to give the latter’s book rights away at cost (zero profit) to an individual, Raj Lakhani, who they have never heard of or met and who has never made a film in his life. In other words, the case filed by Hart states that the nonsensical story that Deora and Netflix are depending on is that the original owner of the book rights, Hart, who paid for and owned the book rights since March 2009, with added protection in the form of Clause 10 in the book rights agreement stating that he cannot be replaced against his will, and who also spent two years battling his partner, Milling Smith, for the same rights between September 2011 and November 2013 alongwith Mudbhatkal and Deora — ultimately three producers battled with and settled with the fourth producer, Milling Smith, not to produce The White Tiger themselves but to instead give away the book rights at cost (zero profit) to a fifth individual, Raj Lakhani, that neither of them knew, against their own interest of producing their own film. Hart makes the case that Mukul Deora subsequently doing his producing deal with this entity, Particle, is, in fact, proof that Hart, Mudbhatkal and Deora’s producing deals with Particle were the next step and condition precedents for any completion of the deal/transaction between all the producers and Particle.

(ii) Mukul Deora’s lawyer surprisingly admitted in the Delhi high court hearing that Raj Lakhani’s company and development finance payment of $1 million was, in fact, Mukul Deora’s. An open admission like this could also potentially put Deora in trouble under the Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Act, especially since its enforcement has been strengthened under the current Modi regime.

(iii) The order makes a mention of Mudbhatkal writing to the CEO of Netflix, Reed Hastings, in November 2019, asking him to personally make sure that his company did a thorough due diligence of the chain of title of The White Tiger in light of Deora’s misrepresentation to Netflix and also expressing her disappointment with Netflix’s October 11, 2019 response to her Legal Notice where Netflix blatantly admits in writing, to Deora’s misuse of power stating that upon Mudbhatkal bringing up her Producing rights in The White Tiger, Deora filed a criminal case against her in Bombay to intimidate her (while his father and brother were both MPs of the ruling party in Bombay, Maharashtra and India at the time), after which she was forced to “settle” with Deora, and Netflix wants to use a coerced document (which is void ab initio) obtained from her, using the above threat, as their main defence to deprive Mudbhatkal, the only day-to-day producer on The White Tiger for over three years, who has single-handedly worked, drafted and executed all the agreements based on which Netflix has done any deal with Deora and is profiting from The White Tiger, her legitimate Producing rights and profits of her creativity and labour. Mudbhatkal further urged Hastings to adhere to the basic principles of natural justice that any American company espousing American values should be observing, and in light of the above serious allegations against Deora, perform an internal investigation to get to the bottom of the truth and facts, before putting unverified information on a Netflix letterhead in their legal responses. Hastings did not respond, and neither did Netflix initiate any investigation or inquiry or perform any due diligence into the chain of title of The White Tiger that is expected of a media conglomerate such as Netflix even after the original book rights holder and producers had sent a legal notice informing them of Deora’s misrepresentations. Till date, Netflix has not called upon John Hart, the original book rights owner and the only US Copyright holder of the book rights of The White Tiger, nor Mudbhatkal to investigate if Deora was indeed the third-in-line producer and development financier brought on board by Mudbhatkal as her 50/50 partner, and that John Hart was and is the legitimate lead Producer of The White Tiger and if Deora indeed tried to misuse his power and bully Mudbhatkal out of her own film by using a threat of criminal cases against her, which Netflix has itself admitted to in writing, in its written reply to Mudbhatkal’s and Hart’s legal notice dated October 11, 2019.

In the above manner, Deora allegedly defrauded Hart and Mudbhatkal by not executing the complete set of condition precedent agreements as per their arrangement. In other words, while he invested $1 million as the agreed upon development funds for the film (albeit in Raj Lakhani’s name and not his own, with the source of funds still not being clarified to Hart and Mudbhatkal, in another material breach of their arrangement), he did not fulfill his other condition precedent obligations towards them. Since Mudbhatkal could only get on board as a producer of The White Tiger because of Hart, the original owner of the rights, inviting her onto his project, and subsequently Deora could only get on board of The White Tiger solely due to Mudbhatkal, his acquaintance from Hollywood, allowing him on board her debut producing project in lieu of his partnership with her, Deora is the third-in-line producer on the The White Tiger, and, therefore, has no moral or legal right to declare himself the sole producer at the expense of violating the rights of the original copyright holders and producers of the film and his partners who trusted him, and try to give interviews and procure Oscar eligibility for Best Picture etc. without revealing the truth behind how he has singularly managed to reach the top of a very competitive merit- and talent-oriented industry without ever having worked in the industry!

Producer and original copyright holder John Hart told Film Information, “I am a great admirer of the philosopher Isaiah Berlin who famously said, ‘There are two sides of any coin; but there is only one coin: as in the truth.’ The question here is did or did not these events occur? For the purpose of bringing our claims into focus, I rely on Berlin’s above assertion. I entered into an agreement with Sonia and Mukul to be my producing partners on Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger based on Sonia’s professional credibility as a talented studio executive in Hollywood, and Sonia spent years of her professional life in the pursuit of making the picture as its designated day-to-day Producer and with the clear understanding that she and Mukul were equal partners. Secondly, when the rights to make The White Tiger were granted to me personally, Aravind Adiga specifically stated in the contract that the rights to make the movie of his novel were granted to me and I was always to be its principal producer. Furthermore, that contract stated that should there be any change in this assumption, both, he and I, had to agree to it in writing, with mutual consent.”

Hart continued, “As Mukul reneged on his legal obligations to Sonia and myself, what remained for me was the unalterable truth that Aravind had insisted upon, that I be the lead producer, which was unalterable without both our approvals to the contrary, that too, in writing. The second part of this claim rests on challenging Mukul’s assertion that Sonia was merely his employee as opposed to an equal partner and producer of The White Tiger. Not only did Mukul tell Netflix that Sonia was only an employee and not his partner or producer of The White Tiger but added unbelievable insult to injury by also falsely relaying to Netflix that he had “filed a criminal case” against her in India, when she brought up her producing rights, causing her to “settle” with him. Returning to philosopher Berlin’s earlier quote, the question to be answered here is, was Sonia only an employee or an equal partner with Mukul and the legitimate day-to-day producer of The White Tiger? And, was she, in fact, in an ugly misuse of power, ironically mirroring the very story Aravind is trying to convey in The White Tiger, intimidated and threatened with instituting criminal cases against her for the mere act of bringing up her producing rights in The White Tiger? And did or did not Mukul try to obtain her signatures forcibly on (void ab initio) unconscionable one-sided documents prepared in his favour under such a threat as well as economic coercion via non-payment of monies he owed to her? Did these events occur or not. There is only one truth.”

Hart further added, “I have filed this case not just on my or Sonia’s behalf, but on behalf of all artistes that spend years of their lives in the service of protecting the integrity of the underlying material they are trying to create, only to be stripped off the legitimate credit and rewards of their labour; if we don’t try and change this dynamic then copyright means nothing, nor do those people who actually do the real work to create it.”

It is pertinent to note here that Aravind Adiga’s entire payment for the book rights was made by John Hart. In fact, Mukul Deora joined the project as a development financier via his partnership with Mudbhatkal, only after the rights had already been purchased and author paid in full by Hart.

The White Tiger is directed by Ramin Bahrani who is also credited as a producer with Mukul Deora. Ava DuVernay and Priyanka Chopra have also been credited as executive producers on the film. It stars Priyanka Chopra, Rajkumar Rao and Adarsh Gourav who, incidentally, has been winning rave reviews for the portrayal of his character of Balram Halwai.