Ludhiana Court Refuses to Stay Release Of Diljit Dosanjh's Netflix Film Chamkila

In an order pronounced on Wednesday, 10 April, the court of Additional District Judge Shatin Goyal in Ludhiana refused to injunct the release of Imtiaz Ali's film Amar Singh Chamkila, as per a report by The Indian Express. The Diljit Dosanjh-starrer is set to release on Netflix on Friday, 12 April.

Patiala-based Ishdeep Singh Randhawa had filed a petition on 8 April in the court, demanding "perpetual injunction" and “restrain on the release of the film”. Randhawa reportedly claimed that Chamkila's first wife Gurmail Kaur had sold the exclusive rights of the biopic to his late father Gurdev Singh, who was a director/producer in the Punjabi film industry.

Randhawa also claimed that Kaur had taken Rs 5 lakh from his father for giving the rights and signed a written agreement on 12 October, 2012. Randhawa stated that his father passed away in 2022, and as his father's legal heir the rights to make a film on Chamkila's life were with him and his family.

A similar suit filed by Randhawa in a Ludhiana court last year was “dismissed as withdrawn.”

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Advocate Siddharth Sharma Tejas, who the counsel for production house Window Seat Films and Reliance Entertainment, told The Indian Express that the court "refused to pass injunction orders on the film's release and adjourned the application," granting time to the filmmakers to file their written response.

“We argued that the movie’s release cannot be injuncted as the matter does not amount to any copyright infringement and the agreement on which the plaintiff is relying is barred by law of limitation and provisions of Copyright Act. The order refusing the injunction was pronounced in the open court. The court said ‘No injunction, no urgency’,” the publication quoted Tejas as saying. The next date of hearing is 6 May.

Amar Singh Chamkila, also starring Parineeti Chopra in a lead role, is based on the lives of slain Punjabi singers Amar Singh Chamkila and Amarjot Kaur.