New Delhi The copyright to the screenplay written by director Satyajit Ray for his 1966 film Nayak belongs to him, and after his death to his son Sandip Ray and the Society for Preservation of Satyajit Ray Archives, the Delhi high court ruled on Tuesday, stressing that an author, commissioned by the producer of a film to write its screenplay, must be first owner of the copyright.
The court’s ruling came while deciding a lawsuit by the family of the film’s producer RD Bansal who contended that the copyright to the film as well as the screenplay belonged to them.
Ray, recognised as one of cinema’s great masters, died in 1992.
Nayak, or Nayak: The Hero starring Uttam Kumar and Sharmila Tagore is a psychological drama set on a train that deals with the aspiring, impatient Bengali middle class of the 1960s and its constant struggle with money and Marxism. It won the Special Jury Award at the Berlin International Film Festival. Nayak’s story and screenplay were written by Ray, making it the second film to be penned wholly (story and screenplay) by him after Kanchenjungha (1962).
“Inexorably, the conclusion is that under Section 17 of the Copyright Act, Satyajit Ray, as the author of the screenplay of the film Nayak, was the first owner of the copyright... The contention that the plaintiff is the owner of the copyright in the screenplay in the film Nayak, therefore, cannot be accepted and is accordingly, rejected,” justice C Hari Shankar held.
{{/usCountry}}“Inexorably, the conclusion is that under Section 17 of the Copyright Act, Satyajit Ray, as the author of the screenplay of the film Nayak, was the first owner of the copyright... The contention that the plaintiff is the owner of the copyright in the screenplay in the film Nayak, therefore, cannot be accepted and is accordingly, rejected,” justice C Hari Shankar held.
{{/usCountry}}Bansal’s family had sought to restrain HarperCollins from publishing and distributing a 2018 novel by Bhaskar Chattopadhyay that was a novelisation on Ray’s screenplay for Nayak on the grounds that this was an infringement of its copyright.
On the other hand, HarperCollins contended that the copyright belonged to Satyajit Ray, and after his death to his son Sandip Ray and the Society for Preservation of Satyajit Ray Archives (SPSRA).
Rejecting the Bansal family’s suit, justice C Hari Shankar said the producer’s family has no right to injunct the novelisation of the screenplay by third parties. The court observed that there was no dispute that the screenplay of the film was “entirely the work of Satyajit Ray” and the producer “contributed no part” to it.
The court said that, being the author, Ray was the first owner of the copyright to the screenplay and the right to novelise it was vested in him, and the later conferment of this right by his son and SPSRA to a third party was above board.
Copyright in the screenplay of the film Nayak vested, therefore, consequent on the demise of Satyajit Ray, on his son Sandip Ray and SPSRA. The conferment of the right to novelise the screenplay, by Sandip Ray and the SPSRA on the defendant, therefore, is wholly in order,” ruled the court.
Ray won an honorary Academy Award in 1992 for his “real mastery in the arts of motions pictures and his profound humanism which has had indelible influence on filmmakers throughout the world”.