Channel wins horror show case

UTV Bindaas was taken to court over copyright infringement for reality show The Chair.

Karthik Rajgopal Iyer, a self-proclaimed magician-cum-writer, dragged UTV Bindaas to the City Civil Court in Bangaluru citing copyright infringement over the horror reality show, The Chair, which went on air last night. Iyer got a stay order on the show claiming that the concept was registered in his name.

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When asked, Nikhil Gandhi, business head, UTV Bindaas, says, “He had earlier written random letters to us when the promos went on air. Since we receive many such mails, we didn’t pay much attention to it, thinking he wanted to have a share in the pie. Later, the legal team replied to his mails but it didn’t help.”

By then, the case had already been filed in the City Civil Court and the Bindaas legal team even attended the hearings. “The case was clear. The judge, after hearing both sides, concluded that the claim made by Karthik didn’t hold any ground and the shows were extremely different from each other. They bore no resemblance,” explains Gandhi.

So why was the channel dragged to court? “Probably because a lot of horror shows seem alike. But The Chair is a new concept. If you ask me, even when Karthik got a stay order on the show, I was sure that we will air it on the day we had earlier decided, which was yesterday. We’re waiting to know what the audience thinks of it,” he says.

And what if Iyer moves higher courts? “If he wants to waste time, he can move higher courts. The case was baseless anyway,” says Gandhi. “I don’t think we have anything to bother.”