Panorama Studios International, the production company which had acquired the Hindi remake rights of the Malayalam film Drishyam 2, told the Bombay High Court on Wednesday that it would not begin shooting the Hindi remake till the copyright suit filed against them was solved.
This comes after production house Viacom 18 Media Pvt Ltd approached the high court last week seeking a restraining order over Panorama Studios International from producing a the film. On Tuesday, producers Kumar Mangat Pathak and Abhishek Pathak’s Panorama Studios International announced that their production house had acquired the Hindi remake rights of the Mohanlal-starrer Malayalam thriller.
However, according to Bar and Bench, Viacom 18 alleged that Wide Angle Creations and Raj Kumar Theatres Pvt Ltd had given “exclusive, absolute, irrevocable and perpetual copyright to produce new films by adapting the Malayalam film Drishyam to Viacom 18″.
According to the report, the court said, “The statement is that the defendants (Panorama) will not themselves or through any other person with whom they may have a contract or arrangement, begin shooting of the film in question ie a sequel to the film Drishyam.”
It was also agreed upon by the production house that if they do any preparatory work such as script, screenplay, dialogue, it would be at their own risk and they cannot claim any equities based on that in the future.
Recommended
In their complaint, Viacom 18 mentioned that in 2017, Panorama Studios had approached them with a desire to produce the prequel or sequel of Drishyam in Hindi. While at the time Viacom 18 wanted to co-produce the film, Panorama Studios did not respond to their “right of first refusal” terms.
The matter will next be heard on June 18.
In 2015, the Malayalam film Drishyam was remade in Hindi starring Ajay Devgn, Tabu, and Shriya Saran in the lead. The film was helmed by the late Nishikant Kamat.