MUMBAI: Copyright Bill is likely to pass after the budget session gets over and even after the Bill is passed it will lead into numerous litigations. This was the key discussion at one of the sessions of the 13th Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) held on 14 March in Mumbai.

The session ‘Protecting Copyrights, Infringements & New Trends i.e. Remake’ moderated by consultant & lawyer Dina Dattani included panelists like Saikrishna & Associates managing partner Saikrishna Rajagopal, French Embassy TV & Cinema –head Deborah Benattar, RCL Motion Pictures & Producer head Jagdish Rajpurohit, International Federation of Film Producers Association former director general Bertrand Mouiller and UTV Motion Pictures creative director Amar Butala.

The discussion brought out the fact that there are a lot of variations in the proposed Copyright Law. Rajagopal, using his litigation expertise gave a brief on the number of Copyright Laws proposed from decades and the issues raised in the film industry. Rajagopal has represented various industry bodies before the Indian Parliamentary Standing Committee overseeing the proposed amendments to the Copyright Act, 1957.

Taking the session further, he noted that there should be specialized courts that deal with Copyright issues today. The judges who are dealing with Copyright cases in India themselves lack efficient study about the law. There are variations in the proposed law and it seeks more transparency by an eminent panel of judges.

The discussion took an interesting turn when it was noted that the use of old songs in movies today has become a trend amongst the new breed of directors. Even the number of remakes are increasing in the film industry and so an interesting question was raised from the audience that ‘If a director wants to make a remake who is he liable to buy the rights from - the producer or song writer?’

Referring to RCL Motion Pictures obtaining the copyright of the French film ‘L’emmerduer’, Rajpurohit said, "When we approached the French film producers, they were a little inquisitive, but decided to give us the remaking rights after some thought."

But they will decide on associating with the Hindi remake ‘Bumboo’ after they come down to India and see whether the makers have followed the content verbatim or have deviated from the same. "I am sure they will be happy after watching the film and associate with our film," observed Rajpurohit. The film releases in India on 31 July.

Butala said, "These days things have changed a lot and producers don’t want to go to Court on matters of copyright infringement. They sort the matter amicably."

After a lot of debate and discussion, it was concluded that according to the new norms of the law the final agreement that is signed by the producers and songwriters of the original film, decides on who owns the actual rights.

Recently, a professor in Delhi claimed that a proverb that he used during delivering his lectures was used as dialogue in one of the latest movie. After the Delhi High Court verdict, the dialogue was removed from the movie. Hence, the session concluded with a ray of positive hope that although the Copyright Bill has many disparities and is being delayed, the creative rights of individuals in India are not only protected in music and movies but even other fields of creativity like dialogues and script writing are been taken into consideration.