Bombay High Court has rejected a plea to stall the OTT premiere of 83, led by Ranveer Singh, on Saturday. The film is set to digitally release on Netflix and Hotstar.
Mad Man Film Ventures had sought a stay order for alleged copyright infringement against the producers as well as the streaming platforms.
Responding to the plea, the court noted that the complainant had acknowledged and accepted that both streaming platforms have “antecedent rights of exploitation of the subject film on satellite and digital media.”
The Kabir Khan-directorial stars Singh as former Indian cricketer Kapil Dev, alongside an ensemble cast including Deepika Padukone, Jiiva, Tahir Raj Bhasin, Saqib Saleem, Harrdy Sandhu, Ammy Virk, Pankaj Tripathi, Boman Irani, Nishant Dahiya, Sahil Khattar, among several others. The sports drama chronicles the journey of the Indian cricket team, that went on to win its maiden World Cup title in 1983 under Kapil Dev’s captaincy.
[Read Silverscreen India’s review of the film, here.]
The film is jointly produced by Khan, Vishnu Vardhan Induri, Madhu Mantena’s Phantom Films, Padukone’s Ka Productions, Sajid Nadiadwala, Reliance Entertainment and 83 Film Ltd.
This is not the first time that the sports drama faced legal concerns.
The makers had faced a criminal complaint for alleged cheating, criminal conspiracy and breach of contract at the hands of Future Resources FZE, a UAE-based financier company.
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According to the complaint, representatives from FZE had met with the Hyderabad-based Vibri Media looking for big investments. The latter had “fraudulently made bogus, exaggerated claims” and submitted false profit-and-loss reports to get FZE to invest approximately Rs 16 crore with Vibri Media. It had further alleged that Vibri Media had failed to inform FZE about any third party transactions, before entering into multiple agreements with the aforementioned production banners.
Induri had dismissed the complaint as ‘false, baseless and motivated.’ He had stated that FZE had been restrained by the Telangana High Court from interfering with the movie, owing to pending internal disputes between the company and Vibri Media.
83 was one of the most highly-anticipated films in India, and released on December 24, 2021. The film was declared tax-free in Delhi, and went on to collect over Rs 186 crores, globally.