The Delhi high court’s decision came down while considering a complaint bought by the family of RD Bansal who claimed that the copyright of satyajit ray’s Nayak belongs to them.
Image source: IMDb
The Delhi high court said that the copyright to the screenplay written by director Satyajit Ray for his 1966 film ‘Nayak’ belongs to, after his demise, his son and Sandip Ray and the Society for the Preservation of satyajit ray archives. The first owner of the copyright of the screenplay of a film, commissioned by the producer to do so, is the writer or author of the film, says the court.Â
The court’s decision came down when deciding the lawsuit by the family of the film’s producer, SD Bansal, who said that the copyright for the script and screenplay of the film belonged to them.
Satyajit Ray, one of cinema’s greatest masters, passed away in 1992.
Image source: IMDb
Nayak is a psychological drama starring Uttam Kumar and Sharmila Tagore. It deals with aspiring middle-class Bengali in the 1960s who constantly struggle with money and Marxism. The story and screenplay of the film were done by Ray, making it the second film which was fully written by him, after Kunchejunga (1962).
Under section 17 of the copyright act, Satyajit Ray being the author of the screenplay of the film was the first owner of it. Therefore the complaint made by the family of SD Bansal was rejected.
Bansal’s family had also restrained HarperCollins from publishing and distributing a 2018 novel by Bhaskar Chattopadhyay as it was a novelization of Ray’s screenplay for ‘Nayak’. On the other hand, HarperCollins claimed that the copyright belonged to Ray and now to his family and the Society for Preservation of Satyajit Ray Archives (SPSRA).
Rejecting the Bansal family’s suit, the court says that the producer’s family had no right to restrain the novelisation of the screenplays by third parties. There was no dispute that the screenplay of the film was entirely satyajit ray’s work and the producer contributed no part to it, the court observed.
Satyajit Ray is a master of many fields. Editing, directing, screenwriting, composing, illustrating, you name it. His first feature film Pather Panchali (the song of the Road) released in 1955, won eleven international prizes, including the inaugural best human Document Award at the 1956 Cannes film festival.
Image source: IMDb
Ray’s films have realist themes, and he also explored surrealism and fantasy as well. His films are a mirror of society that shows the divide between the rich and the poor, the educated and the uneducated. His films are subconsciously a tribute to Italian neorealist filmmakers like Jean Renoir and Vittorio de Sica. Ray is looked up to by many filmmakers. Wes Anderson in an interview mentioned how Ray was one of his biggest inspirations.
