IC-814 series row: HC notices to producers over ANI’s plea

The Delhi High Court has issued notices to the producers of Netflix series IC 814: The Kandahar hijack on a copyright and trademark infringement suit filed by ANI, Bar and Bench reported.

Justice Mini Pushkarna reportedly ordered Matchbox Shots, Benaras Mediaworks, and Netflix to file their replies to ANI’s plea for interim relief within two days. The court will hear the matter again on Friday.

According to ANI’s plea, the show used its footage showing the then PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee, General Parvez Musharraf, and terrorists without any license.

Appearing for the agency, advocate Sidhant Kumar reportedly said they do not want to be associated with a show which is being termed as a public relations exercise for the Pakistani spy agency ISI. Kumar said the producer did approach them with a request for use of their footage in 2021 but there has been no agreement between the two sides. He said the agency’s logo is visible which amounts to infringement of its trademark, and that four episodes used ANI footage which must be taken down and the logo blurred.

However, the producers’ lawyer rejected the claim.

According to Bar and Bench, advocate Hiren Kamod appeared for one of the producers and said that real news footage used in the show have been obtained through two other firms named Conceptual and Wilderness and an amount of Rs 1.75 crore was paid for it. He said that Reuters had given this footage to the other firms and the producers have a deal with them.

Another counsel appearing for Netflix reportedly said it is clear that the hijack was the work of ISI and the reason why ANI’s logo is in one of the footage is because it was the first statement by PM Vajpayee to the media.