The Delhi high court fined Ramgopal Varma and his production house a sum of Rs 10 lakh as punitive damages in a judgment in favour of Sholay Media and Entertainment by Justice Manmohan Singh on 24 August 2015, reported Asian Age and others.

Read judgment.

The suit was filed through Sascha Sippy, represented by Anand & Anand managing partner Pravin Anand and advocate Geetanjali Vishwanathan, while the defendants were not present and ex parte, according to the judgment.

It was held by the court that the Varma remake’s publicity material, movie, similar plot and characters along with the music, lyrics and background score and even dialogues from the original film Sholay, gave “an overall impression that it is a remake of the film Sholay” and, “amounts to infringement of copyright”.

The court held the defendants guilty of infringement which is, “a deliberate act to gain profits.” The court also said that, “the defendants have distorted and mutilated the original copyright work of the plaintiffs”.

The court passed the judgment which also barred the defendents permanently from manufacturing, selling, offering for sale or distributing any of materials involved with Sholay or the characters, music or the dialogues on top of the punitive damages and costs to be given to the plaintiff.