Behind every screen
sits a stack of rights.

Chain of title issues underlie many disputes in this industry. A film or series collects rights from many hands: the underlying literary work, the screenplay, the score and songs, the performances, the footage. We build and audit that chain from the start, through writer agreements with clear assignment, option and rights purchase agreements, composer and publisher arrangements, performer consents, and clearances for third-party material appearing on screen. Under the Copyright Act, 1957, assignment is governed by Sections 18 and 19 and voluntary licences by Sections 30 and 30A, and the drafting detail there carries particular weight: the scope of rights, the territory, the term, the media and formats covered, and what becomes of rights that are never exercised. Section 57 moral rights survive assignment, so a clean assignment clause does not by itself answer every claim an author can bring. This work is more straightforward when done in sequence than when reconstructed later.

A gap in that chain rarely stops production. It surfaces later, when a platform runs its own review before an acquisition closes, and by then the producer has very little left to trade with.

With the rise of OTT platforms, we advise on content acquisition, distribution agreements, and regulatory compliance. Platform deals turn on questions that look commercial but are legal in substance: whether a licence is exclusive and in which window, how holdbacks run across theatrical, television and streaming, and which side carries the errors and omissions risk. We negotiate those terms. Curated online content is then governed by the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, which set out the Code of Ethics, the age-based classification framework, age verification and access control for content classified A, a parental lock mechanism for content classified U/A 13+ and above, and a three-tier grievance redressal structure. Parts of that framework have been the subject of constitutional challenge and the position on some provisions is not settled. Theatrical release runs through certification under the Cinematograph Act, 1952.

We also conduct due diligence, content clearance and legal audits before a title goes out. Publicity risk and much of the privacy and defamation exposure in fact-based and biographical work turns on case law, alongside the criminal defamation provisions, which makes it a question of judgement.

Areas of practice include player contracts, agency arrangements, and the anti-doping framework under the National Anti-Doping Act, 2022. On the commercial side, sponsorship and team agreements, image and personality rights, merchandising, and the disciplinary processes governing bodies run. For talent we paper endorsement and appearance arrangements, and advise on the disclosure obligations attaching to endorsements and influencer marketing under consumer protection guidance.

Most projects run through a dedicated vehicle so that financing, rights and liabilities sit in one identifiable place. We advise on that structure and on the co-production and co-financing terms above it: who contributes what, who holds the underlying rights and the master materials, and how recoupment is ordered in the revenue waterfall. Where a completion guarantee or a lender sits above it, the security package has to be reconciled with talent agreements signed months earlier.

The Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 subsumes the earlier cine-workers legislation and treats audio-visual workers as a distinct category for whom a written agreement is expected, rather than the deal memo much of the industry has run on.

Central Rules under the four labour codes have been notified. Sets carry other obligations too: an internal committee under the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 where the statutory threshold is met, with the local committee route otherwise, and separate permissions where a child performs.

Music is where clearance most often goes wrong, because a single cue can require two separate permissions. Using an existing recording needs a synchronisation licence for the underlying composition and lyrics, and a master licence for the sound recording; those two rights frequently sit with different owners on different terms. A commissioned score raises its own questions. What the composer assigns, what the publisher keeps, how the cue sheet is prepared, and whether the producer can exploit the score outside the film at all. Where rights are administered collectively, licences may be issued through copyright societies registered under Section 33 of the Copyright Act, 1957, which publish tariff schemes, and owners may also license in their individual capacity. The version a production actually wants is rarely the version the paperwork describes either. A live rendition, a remix, a re-recorded cover and four seconds playing on a radio behind a scene are separate clearance problems, and the last of those is the one left to the edit.

The 2012 amendments to the Copyright Act, 1957 changed the economics for authors. Authors of literary and musical works incorporated in a film retain a right to an equal share of royalties for utilisation of the work other than by way of exhibition of the film in a cinema hall, and that entitlement cannot be assigned away except to legal heirs or to a copyright society. Under the proviso to Section 18(1), an assignment does not apply to a medium or mode of exploitation that did not exist or was not in commercial use when the assignment was made, unless the assignment specifically referred to it. Older catalogue may not reflect the position after the 2012 amendments. Catalogue acquisitions often require re-papering of older assignments, and the people whose signatures are required can be hard to find. Whether the statutory broadcasting licence under Section 31D extends to internet transmission is contested. A High Court has held that it does not extend to internet streaming, and the position has not been settled generally.

India has no dedicated statute for personality or publicity rights. Protection is assembled from passing off, from any trade mark registration a performer holds over a name or signature, from the right to privacy, and from contract. Some High Court decisions, largely at the interim stage, have restrained unauthorised commercial use of a recognisable name, image, likeness or voice, particularly where the use implies an association that does not exist, and the position continues to develop.

Synthetic media has sharpened this. A general grant of the right to use a performance is a weak basis on which to build a digital double years later, so we draft consent terms covering replicas, dubbing, voice recreation and machine learning use, with separate approval.

What survives to an estate is not uniform. We flag that as unsettled rather than advising over it.

A content leak is an operational problem first and a legal one second. Civil remedies run through infringement proceedings under the Copyright Act, 1957, including applications for interim injunctions, and orders which courts have in some cases extended to mirror sites. Blocking directions may be issued by the Central Government under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000 and the rules made under it, and courts have directed blocking in infringement proceedings. Takedown notices under the IT Rules, 2021 and the provisions introduced by the Cinematograph (Amendment) Act, 2023 on recording inside an exhibition facility sit alongside that.

Cross-border deals look familiar on the page. A foreign work-for-hire recital may not have the same effect under Section 17 of the Copyright Act, 1957, which vests first ownership in an employer only in defined circumstances, so an express written assignment is used rather than a recital. Receipts and remittances are subject to the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999, and the tax characterisation of a payment as royalty affects withholding, which is a question to settle in the term sheet and not at the invoice.