Kochi: Amar Chitra Katha (ACK Media), the seller of leading comic book series, has filed a petition before the Bombay High Court, against the film’s producer and the production house Angel Maria Cinemas, accusing the film’s producer SK Lawrence of infringing the trademark of a fiction character “ShikkariShambhu” that was created and first appeared in Tinkle, an ACK publication, in the year 1983.
The Malayalam film ShikkariShambhu, starring actor Kunchacko Boban in the lead role, hit theatres across the country on 20th January, the filmmakers have found themselves in a soup over allegations of copyright violations.
According to Bar and Bench, ACK issued a cease and desist notice to the producer on 3rd October 2017 after realizing about the title of the Malayalam film and the producer reverted to the cease and desist notice and expressed willingness to obtain the licence for using the trademark.
However, Even as negotiations were underway, the film was released on 20th January 2018 without any knowledge of ACK that was scheduled to be released between February to April, 2018 as per the communications of the film Producers Angel Maria Cinemasto ACK.
The petition was disposed off by Bombay HC, after the producer agreed to pay Rs 10 lakh to ACK. The court has restrained the filmmakers from releasing part two of the film under the same name, and releasing the dubbed version of the film in any other language with the same name.
