Supreme Court of India
| Photo Credit: Sushil Kumar Verma
The Supreme Court on Monday held in a judgment that a movie trailer is not a promise or an settlement enforceable by legislation. A producer can’t be held accountable for unfair commerce observe if the contents of the promo do not characteristic within the precise film.
“A song, dialogue, or a short visual in a promotional trailer may be seen in the context of the multifarious uses of advertisements. These could be used to popularise or to create a buzz about the release of the film, rather than to purely represent information about the contents of the film,” a Bench headed by Justice P.S. Narasimha noticed.
The judgment put aside an order of the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission in 2017, directing Yash Raj Films to pay ₹10,000 as compensation in addition to litigation prices to a schoolteacher, Afreen Fatima Zaidi, aggrieved by the exclusion of a tune in Bollywood film Fan.
Allowing the attraction filed by the movie manufacturing agency, a Bench of Justices Narasimha and Aravind Kumar mentioned there was no “deficiency” in service and the complainant wrongly assumed that a promotional trailer is a suggestion or a promise.
The high court docket’s verdict got here whereas listening to an attraction filed by Yash Raj Films Pvt Ltd difficult an order of the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) which upheld the State Commission’s 2017 route to pay a compensation of ₹10,000 to Afreen Fatima Zaidi and a litigation value of ₹5,000.
“A promotional trailer is unilateral. It is only meant to encourage a viewer to purchase the ticket to the movie, which is an independent transaction and contract from the promotional trailer. A promotional trailer by itself is not an offer and neither intends to nor can create a contractual relationship,” Justice Narasimha wrote.