Madras High Court dismisses Netflix plea to reject Dhanush copyright suit against Nayanthara

The Madras High Court on Tuesday dismissed the plea filed on behalf of Netflix to reject the civil suit filed by actor Dhanush’s production house Wunderbar Films against actor Nayanthara and others over alleged copyright infringement pertaining to the documentary Nayanthara: Beyond the Fairytale..Justice Abdul Quddhose, also dismissed another application to revoke the leave that the judge had granted previously to Wunderbar Films to file the suit before the Madras High Court and implead Netflix as a party, though its registered offices were in Mumbai.The Court further listed for hearing on February 5, an interim application filed by Wunderbar Films in the original suit it has filed against Nayanthara and others..Los Gatos Productions (the entity through which Netflix makes investments in India) had filed two applications seeking rejection of the leave granted by the Court earlier to Wunderbar to implead it as a party before the Madras High Court, and also seeking complete rejection of the original plaint.Senior Advocate R Parthasarathy, who appeared for Los Gatos, had urged the Court to reject Wunderbar's plaint, saying that the Madras High Court had no jurisdiction over the suit since Wunderbar's registered office was not in Chennai, but in Kanchipuram district. Therefore, he argued that the production company should have approached either a Kanchipuram district court as per Section 62 of the Copyright Act of 1957, or the Bombay High Court as per Clause 12 of the Letters Patent Act, 1865, since Los Gatos and Netflix had its registered office in Mumbai..Advocate General PS Raman, who had appeared in his personal capacity for Wunderbar Films, however, had told the Court that at the time Nayanthara signed her contract for the 2015 film with Wunderbar Films, she and Wunderbar had their respective registered offices in Chennai. A part of the film too was shot in Chennai and the Netflix documentary had been released to be watched all across India, including Chennai. Therefore, Wunderbar had every right to file its suit before the Madras High Court, he had said..The High Court held that there had been no error in ranting Wunderbar Films to file its suit before the Madras High Court since it exercised original civil jurisdiction and was right to hear the suit as a major part of the cause of action arose in Chennai.“In so for as the Madras High Court is concerned which exercises Ordinary Original Civil Jurisdiction, Clause 12 of the Letters Patent instead of Section 20 of Civil Procedure Code applies. Clause 12 of the Letters Patent empowers this Court to grant leave to institute a suit if a part of cause of action arose within the jurisdiction of this Court This Court granted leave for the first respondent/plaintiff to institute a suit against the applicant/fifth defendant only by exercising its powers under Clause 12 of the Letters Patent since major part of cause of action for the suit arose only at Chennai, within the jurisdiction of this Court,” the High Court said..On November 16 this year, Nayanthara claimed on her social media handles that Dhanush was harbouring a personal grudge against her and her husband. She also said in such posts that she was shocked to receive a legal notice from Dhanush seeking damages of ₹10 crore after the release of the Netflix documentary trailer about the actress in which three seconds of behind-the-scenes footage of Naanum Rowdy Dhaan had been used.Nayanthara, who is the third defendant in the present suit, is represented before the High Court through Senior Advocate Satish Parasaran..[Read Order]