The Madras High Court on Tuesday ruled against an application by Los Gatos, the Indian subsidiary of Netflix, seeking to dismiss at the preliminary stage a copyright infringement complaint filed by actor Dhanush. The court also set a new date, February 5, for further hearing of Dhanush’s production house, Wunderbar, which is seeking an interim injunction against Netflix and other defendants.
The dispute centers around unauthorized use of behind-the-scenes footage from Dhanush’s Tamil film “Naanum Rowdy Daan” in a documentary about actress Nayanthara, titled “Nayanthara: Beyond the Fairytale,” which was broadcast on Netflix. Dhanush claims that the footage was used without permission, constituting a breach of copyright.
Justice Abdul Quddhose, presiding over the case, rejected Netflix’s motion to revoke an earlier court order that allowed Dhanush to sue the OTT platform in the Madras High Court, despite Netflix’s Mumbai-based office. Netflix had argued that since their office is located outside the jurisdiction of the Madras High Court, Dhanush needed to obtain leave to sue against all defendants involved, not just Los Gatos.
Furthermore, Netflix contended that the lawsuit should have been filed in Kancheepuram, where the plaintiff’s registered office is situated, and that leave was not appropriately sought for that part of the cause of action arising outside the Madras High Court’s jurisdiction.
Netflix also sought dismissal of the plaint on the grounds that there was no urgency in the matter since the documentary had already been released. They argued that the plaintiff should have pursued mandatory pre-suit mediation instead of proceeding directly to litigation.
The court, however, was not persuaded by Netflix’s arguments and dismissed both the application to revoke the leave to sue and the motion to reject the plaint. This decision allows Dhanush’s lawsuit to proceed, maintaining his claim against the unauthorized use of copyrighted material in the Nayanthara documentary.
