Ranveer Singh's '83' hits OTT after clearing legal hurdle

Ranveer Singh’s biographical sports drama 83, which captures the days before the Indian cricket team won its first World Cup in England, is hitting the OTT sphere via Netflix and Disney+Hotstar. This follows a ruling by the Bombay High Court rejecting a plea to prevent its streaming.

As per livelaw.in, Mad Man Film Ventures, which holds 37.5 per cent ownership of the intellectual property of 83, had filed a suit against Reliance Entertainment Studios Pvt. Ltd, Phantom Films Pvt. Ltd., Star India Pvt. Ltd., Netflix Global LLC seeking a stay on the movie’s OTT and satellite release. The issue for consideration before the High Court was regarding the exploitation of satellite and/or digital media by Star and Netflix.

Justice Riyaz Chagla, however, rejected the plea observing that Star India and Netflix have prior rights to exploit 83 on satellite and digital media for a period of ten years.

Advocate Virag Tulzapurkar appearing for Mad Man Film Ventures had argued that as per the clauses in the contract, for the first 10 year period, it was entitled to receive a percentage of the net collection from Reliance and until such payment was not fully received, it did not consent to the exploitation of digital or satellite rights of the film.

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However, the Reliance lawyer, Venkatesh Dhond submitted that Reliance continues to have exclusive all ancillary non-theatrical rights or exploitation rights for 83 on worldwide basis for a period of 10 years from the date of the first theatrical release of the subject film. And Mad Man had no locus standi to even file the suit for infringement of copyright, he contended.

The Kabir Khan directorial 83 centers on the days before India, considered to be the underdogs, defeat reigning champions West Indies and lift the World Cup. The film, which stars Ranveer Singh as Kapil Dev, and a host of talented actors such as Pankaj Tripathi, Tahir Raj, Jiiva, Jatin Sarna and Chirag Patil in important roles, delayed reaching the theatres because of the pandemic. It was initially scheduled for a theatrical release in April 2020.

There was a lot of anticipation and hype surrounding 83 when it released in theatres in December 2021, but despite positive reviews the film failed to set the box office on fire and grossed ₹109.02 crore. Probably because audiences were not patronising theatres in a big way for fear of COVID.

Film lovers who missed it in theatres will now get a chance to catch it on OTT.