Rdb And Co. Huf V. Harpercollins Publishers India Private Limited

Satyajit Ray owns the copyright in the screenplay of the 1966 film ‘Nayak’. Since RDB had commissioned Ray to write the screenplay under a ‘contract for service’ ‘between equals’, RDB has no separate copyright or right of use over the said underlying works. RDB thus may not injunct HarperCollins from publishing a novelization of the screenplay under a license from the copyright owner.