After a legal battle that stretched beyond court hours, Knock Out, the Sanjay Dutt-starrer which Hollywood studio 20th Century Fox had charged with copyright infringement, will be released in theatres on Friday.
Fox had alleged that Knock Out was a rip-off of its 2003 production Phone Booth, the copyright for which is vested with them.
After watching both the films on Wednesday evening, justice Roshan Dalvi on Friday had granted Fox’s prayer and stayed the release of the film. Justice Dalvi watched both the films in order to assess the alleged copyright infringement.
However, on behalf of Sohail Maklai Entertainment Private Limited (SMEPL), the producers of Knock Out, senior counsel Iqbal Chagla and advocate Ameet Naik challenged the injunction before a division bench of chief justice Mohit Shah and justice DY Chandrachud on Thursday evening and got the order of the single judge stayed. The film will now be released on Friday.
Arguing for Fox, senior counsel Virendra Tulzapurkar had told the court that they had learnt through industry sources that Knock Out was a copy of Phone Booth and contended that SMEPL had unauthorisedly used Fox’s screenplay to make their film in Hindi.
SMEPL countered the allegations saying that their film was different from Phone Booth, except for the premise of a man trapped in a phone booth, a hostage situation, and a sniper. They also argued that Fox cannot claim monopoly over the idea of a film around a phone booth.
Chagla had told the court that Phone Booth was about a man confessing about his extra-marital affair while Knock Out was about corrupt Indian politicians. He said the suit just before the film’s release is“blackmail”.
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