Delhi High Court Stays Release Of Tamil Film 'Veera Deera Sooran' By 4 Weeks Over Alleged Breach Of Assignment Agreement

Granting ad-interim injunction in favour of the assignee of the film and against the producer, Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora observed “Considering the facts of the present case the defendant is acting in the breach of the Assignment Agreement, this Court is satisfied that the plaintiff has made out a prima facie case for grant of ad-interim injunction against the defendant, its agents, representatives and assigns or any person acting through the defendant from releasing the Assigned Film on March 27, 2025 for a period of four (4) weeks and no further.”

The disputes between the parties arose over a Film Assignment Agreement dated June 19, 2024 executed between Ivy Entertainment Private Limited (plaintiff) and the producer of the film, HR Pictures (defendant), for assignment of digital, theatrical and satellite rights in all copyrights pertaining to the film.

HR Pictures assigned sole and exclusive rights to Ivy Entertainment for the said film in Hindi and North Indian languages in perpetuity. These exclusive rights were assigned to Ivy Entertainment for consideration of Rs. 51 crore. Ivy Entertainment paid Rs. 44 crore to HR Pictures till date and Rs. 7 crore of dues were remaining.

As per the agreement between the parties, Before Release Materials and Theatrical Release Materials are required to be delivered by HR Pictures to Ivy at least 14 days prior to the release date of the film. Further, HR Pictures was to provide CBFC Certificate as a part of the Theatrical Release Materials.

The High Court noted that HR Pictures obtained the CBFC certificate for the original language –Tamil only on March 22. It noted that HR Pictures has not yet provided the Theatrical Release Materials and Before Release Materials to Ivy Entertainment.

The Court observed that the Assignment Agreement acknowledges that Theatrical Release Materials are required by Ivy for dubbing and Hindi theatrical release of the film.

HR Pictures contended that since Ivy Entertainment failed to pay the remaining sum of Rs. 7 crores as per the Assignment Agreement, it has no cause of action to claim specific performance. However, noting that Ivy agreed to pay the remaining balance within 24 hours, the Court rejected its contentions.

It observed “Additionally, in the facts of the present case it is evident that the defendant was not in a position to deliver the Theatrical Release Materials prior to March 22, 2025 as the CBFC certification which is a mandatory statutory requirement under Cinematography Act, 1952 and it was only obtained by the defendant on March 22,2025. Moreover, as a matter of fact the defendant has also not supplied any other Theatrical Release Materials enlisted in Article 1.24 of the Assignment Agreement or the pre-release materials stipulated in Article 1.12 of the Assignment Agreement. In these facts, the defendant's refusal to defer the release date of March 27, 2025 is a flagrant breach of its obligations under the Assignment Agreement.”

As HR Pictures did not submit the required documents to Ivy Entertainment till date, the Court halted the released of the film for 4 weeks.

The Court stated that once Ivy pays the remaining Rs. 7 crore to it, HR Pictures shall immediately provide the Before Release Materials and Theatrical Release Materials to it within 48 hours as stipulated in the Assignment Agreement.

Case title: Ivy Entertainment Private Limited vs. HR Pictures

Citation: 2025 LiveLaw (Del) 372

Counsel for Plaintiff: Mr. Darpan Wadhwa, Sr. Adv. with M r. Sanampreet Singh, Mr. Suraj Dhawan, Advs. alongwith Mr. Vipul Jain, AR. 

Counsel for Defendant: Mr. Ruchir Tolat, Utsav Trivedi - Partner, Himanshu Sachdeva - Senior Associate and Ashish Yadav, Associate from TAS Law alongwith Mr. Shibu K, GPA holder.