Knock Out release stayed, lifted within an hour

An hour after a single-judge bench of the Bombay High Court restrained Sohail Maklai Entertainment (SME) from releasing its film Knock Out, a division bench vacated the injunction and allowed its release.

An hour after a single-judge bench of the Bombay High Court restrained Sohail Maklai Entertainment (SME) from releasing its film Knock Out, a division bench vacated the injunction and allowed its release.

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Hollywood production house Twentieth Century Fox had sought a stay on the release saying Knock Out was copied from its film Phone Booth.

SME agreed to deposit Rs 1.5 crore by October 19 with the court pending a ruling.

On Thursday, Justice Roshan Dalvi restrained SME from releasing the Sanjay Dutt-starrer on Friday.

Immediately after that, SME appealed against the verdict before the division bench. Its counsel Iqbal Chagla said there were only three elements common to both films — a phone booth, a sniper and the extraction of a confession from the protagonist.

He claimed the basic concepts of both films were completely different. While in Phone Booth the sniper makes a man confess to having had an affair with his wife, Knockout is about corruption.

When Twentieth Century Fox’s counsel asked for time, the bench asked whether SME was willing to deposit the amount as a condition for vacating the injunction. After SME agreed, the injunction was vacated.