The controversy around Nayanthara’s documentary Beyond The Fairytales took a new turn after superstar Dhanush filed a case in the Madras High Court against the Jawan actor, for illegally using visuals related to his Tamil film Naanum Rowdy Dhaan. Besides Nayanthara, Dhanush has also sued her director-husband Vignesh Sivan, their production company Rowdy Pictures Private Limited and two others, reported The Hindu.
Dhanush’s company Wunderbar Films Private Limited has also submitted an application under Section 12 of Letter Patent Act, seeking permission from the High Court to sue Los Gatos Production Services India LLP. Los Gatos is a Mumbai bases company, through which streaming platform Netflix operates its investments in India. Advocates Gautam S. Raman and Maithreyi Canthaswamy Sharma presented the case before Justice Abdul Quddhose where as senior counsel Sathish Parasaran and R. Parthasarathy represented Nayanthara and Netflix.
After hearing the preliminary arguments on November 27, the court granted the permission considering that the accused in the case are located within its jurisdiction and a major part of the cause of action had arisen over here. Nayanthara will have to respond to the notice at the next hearing, as stated by several reports.
Everything You Need To Know About The Case ?
This comes days after Nayanthara wrote an open letter accusing Dhanush of taking out personal grudges and unnecessarily creating troubles for their documentary Beyond The Fairytales. She also mentioned about requesting an NOC for using some clips from Dhanush’s film almost 2 years before the film released. But when Dhanush failed to send a response, the team decided to edit the clips it out and only keep the 3-second behind-the-scene footage from the set, which shows Nayanthara having a fun chat with her now-husband. However, Dhanush sent a legal notice demanding ₹10 crore for using that 3-second scene too.
The Open-letter
The actress wrote in her letter, “The vengeance that you have been festering against the film, my partner and I, doesn’t just affect us but the people who have given their effort and time towards this project. This NetFlix Documentary about me, my life, my love and marriage includes clips of many of my industry well-wishers who have graciously contributed and memories from multiple films, but sadly does not include the most special and important film, Naanum Rowdy Dhaan. After two long years of battling it out with you for an NOC (No Objection Certificate) and waiting for your approval for our NetFlix documentary release, we finally decided to give up, re-edit and settle for the current version since you declined to permit the usage of Naanum Rowdy Dhaan songs or visual cuts, even the photographs to say the least despite multiple requests. The songs of Naanum Rowdy Dhaan are appreciated till date because the lyrics came from true emotions, knowing that there’s no better music that we could use in our documentary, your refusal to give us the opportunity to use it, or even just lyrics from the songs, broke my heart.”
While further talking about the legal notice, Nayanthara wrote, “What’s even more shocking is your legal notice after the release of the trailer of the Netflix Documentary. We were startled to read those lines wherein you questioned the usage of some videos (just 3 seconds) which were shot in our personal devices and that too BTS visuals that are already very much publicly present on social media and claimed a sum of Rs.10 crores as damages for the mere 3 seconds. This is an all time low from you and speaks so much about your character. I wish you were half the person you portray to be on stage in audio launches in front of your innocent fans but clearly you do not practice what you preach, at least not for me and my partner.”
She called out Dhanush’s decision to send notice and added, “Does a Producer become an Emperor controlling the lives, freedom and liberty of all the persons in the set? Any deviation from the Emperor’s dictum attracts legal ramifications? I am in receipt of your legal notice and we shall respond to it befittingly through lawful means. Your refusal to give NOC for use of elements of Naanum Rowdy Dhaan for our Netflix documentary might be justified by you to the Courts from copyright angle but I wish to remind you that there is a moral side to it, which has to be defended in the court of God.”
