MUMBAI: It’s retribution time for the Subrata Roy owned Sahara TV. After a long drawn legal battle with American author Barbara Taylor Bradford, Sahara has finally won the Karishma – The Miracles of Destiny case.
In a judgment this morning, the Kolkata high court on Monday allowed telecast of Sahara Entertainment’s serial, dismissing an appeal by Bradford, who had claimed the series was a plagiarised version of her novel A Woman of Substance, the Press Trust of India has reported. However, the American author promptly filed an appeal in the Supreme Court.
“We have already filed our appeal in the Supreme Court challenging the high court verdict” delivered earlier in the day, Taylor’s counsel Som Mandal told PTI in Delhi on Monday evening. Taylor has sought a stay on the clearance given to Sahara TV to go ahead with telecast of the serial.
Sahara had aired the first episode of the serial at 9.30 pm on 12 May, but had to discontinue it from the next day as the court blocked telecast of the series following Bradford’s petition. Massive hoardings still dot the metros, displaying the lead characters in the serial, who range from Bollywood actors Karisma Kapoor, Arbaaz Khan, Sanjay Kapoor and Arshad Warsi.
BRADFORD DIRECTED TO PAY DAMAGES
A division bench comprising Justice AN Ray and Justice J Banerjee also directed the American author to pay damages for the delay in the telecast of the serial as well as the cost of litigation, reports PTI.
According to sources close to the production company, Sahara will however not telecast the serial in a hurry. There will be a fresh round of on air promos and teaser campaigns before a re-launch date is finalised for the ‘biggest television series ever’. The channel had gone in for a massive promo blitz in the first week of May, including painting local Mumbai trains with the Karishma… hoardings and tying up with major stores in cities.
The Kolkata High Court, which had earlier this month, given a go ahead to Sahara but withdrew it on an appeal from Bradford, went through all available footage of the serial as well as Bradford’s novel before announcing its verdict today.
Tag: Bradford
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Kolkata HC clears Sahara’s ‘Karishma…’, Bradford files appeal in SC
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Sahara ‘Karishma’s’ next hearing scheduled for 16 June
MUMBAI: And the fight continues. The latest on the copyright infringement case brought against Sahara’s blockbuster soap Karishma – The Miracles of Destiny: American novelist Barbara Taylor Bradford has submitted her case of alleged infringement of copyright before the Kolkata High Court.
According to the Press Trust of India, Bradford’s counsel PC Sen submitted the petition with regard to Patent Act, Designs Act and TradeMark Act before Justice MHS Ansari yesterday. Meanwhile, Justice Ansari has scheduled the next hearing of the case for Monday 16 June.
As for the ‘biggest television series ever’, which had a massive promotional campaign comprising heavy outdoor presence, including painted local trains in Mumbai to bring it in, the telecast has been put on hold after the first episode of the series aired on 12 May show.
According to the media reports, during an interview to film magazine Cine Blitz, the serial’s creative director Akashdeep Sabeer had said the serial was inspired by the novel A Woman of Substance. After this news reached Bradford’s office, she moved to the Kolkata High Court on 7 May and obtained a stay on further telecast. Sahara then moved the Division Bench of the High Court and vacated the stay. The first episode was then aired on 12 June. On the same evening, the American author moved the Supreme Court, which reinstated the stay. On 22 May, the Supreme Court sent back the case to the single Bench of the Kolkata High Court.
In the middle of all this, yet another media report that appeared in a daily The Asian Age states that a summons was issued by metropolitan magistrate RD Gate against Bradford and journalist Pammi Somal (It was her article that appeared in Cine Blitz). The summons was issued in lieu of a criminal complaint of defamation filed by the Karishma’s writer Sachin Bhaumick, who was accused of taking up the story idea. Bhaumick has apparently stated in his complaint to the Mumbai police that Bradford had created a drama out of sheer malice to extract money and that the script was written on his exclusive creation – a story titled Aparajita. According to him, even after the matterwas sub-judice both Bradford as well as Somal were making blatant statements about alleged theft that were defamatory. Since he has been, thus far, a novelist of repute, his reputation was at stake. The defamatory statements had lowered his image in the eyes of public.
At present news is rife in media circuits that the issue will be resolved sooner rather than later.
Whether the issue will be solved on Monday, or Karishma … will go Zee’s Kanhaiyya way, we’ll just have to wait and watch.
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SABe TV to air in UK from Friday
Add one more to the list of TV channels that are trying to get the attention of viewers belonging to the Indian diaspora across the globe. Sri Adhikari Brothers Television Network (SABTNL)-promoted Hindi entertainment channel SABe TV is all set to start airing in the United Kingdom from Friday, 22 February.
The move marks a major advance in the global ambitions that Markand Adhikari, vice-chairman and managing director, SABe TV, has for his channel. Adhikari said today his company had entered into a joint venture agreement by acquiring a 50 per cent stake in a UK-based channel MATV Channel 6 the only operator among Asian channels to have secured a restricted service licence (a requirement for terrestrial broadcast).
MATV is a Leicestershire based free-to-air Asian channel that was launched in 1999 as a terrestrial broadcaster. From April 2000, MATV has been broadcasting through cable networks as well. MATV has achieved cash break even so there are no liabilities that SABTNL has to take up as part of this transaction.
Elaborating on the rollout plans that he has set forth, Adhikari said that initially, as a transitionary step, the channel will have both logos (MATV and SABe TV’s) displayed on-screen. The channel’s coverage will be spread across the entire United Kingdom, Adhikari said, while adding that every day the channel would have a one-hour slot devoted to news and current affairs. The unique feature of this one-hour slot is that local flavour has been brought in by demarcating content that differs from one county to another. Each county will have its own half hour news show with the remaining half hour devoted to happenings in that particular county. This could be in the form of events, interviews, profiles of individuals, all with a local flavour to it, Adhikari said.
Queried as to the kind of money that had gone into the venture, Adhikari said an initial investment of $1 million had been pumped in to acquire the channel. One of the clauses in the deal that works well for Adhikari is that a major chunk of the content on the channel will be sourced through SABTNL. This means a guaranteed revenue source and Adhikari expects to garner revenues of somewhere in the region of 500,000 pounds (Rs 35 million) through providing roughly 2,000 hours of programming a year to the channel.
Adhikari said this was the first major initiative on the part of SABTNL to leverage internationally the programming that it had built up over the years. SABTNL already has joint ventures in Sri Lanka and Indonesia for providing programming but that is small change when compared to what is planned for the UK.
One area where SABe TV UK will differ from its Indian counterpart is that it will be showcasing Hindi films, something that Adhikari has avoided here.
Asked whether there were other international markets he was looking to beyond the UK, Adhikari said the US as well as Australia were possible areas where SABe TV might have a presence at some point.
About MATV:
*Launched on 27th May 1999 through terrestrial broadcast, MATV has started broadcast through cable networks in Leicestershire from 1st April 2000.
*The channel MATV has already achieved a cash breakeven.
*Currently MATV reaches about 50,000 homes which accounts for about 200,000 viewers.
*Joint Venture plans to expand its reach through NTL cable network in nearby counties Nottingham, Derby, Coventry Manchester, Bradford and London city during the current year.
*The expanded reach will provide for connectivity to around 250,000 to 300,000 households with around a million to 1.25 million viewers.
*MATV has an alliance with SKY Television for the broadcast of SKY News.
*MATV broadcasts about 63 hours of new content a week in Hindi and Gujarati language of which about 18 hours of content is produced inhouse.