Ekta Kapoor’s reality show Lock Upp’s finale is nearing …and while everyone is wondering who would be the first winner of Lock Upp Season 1? Would it be faves Munawar Faruqui or Payal Rohatgi? Or would the dark horses Anjali Arora, Shivam Sharma, Azma Fallah or Saisha Shinde steal the thunder from under their noses? And as the debate fires up the internet with fans feuding on the Twitter battlefield, a very shocking development has come into being.
The Hyderabad Civil Court has ordered a stay on Ekta Kapoor’s reality show Lock Upp. According to the news, ”The respondents Ekta Kapoor (Alt Balaji), MX Player, and Endemol Shine are prohibited from exhibiting the ‘Lock Upp’ series on any electronic media, social media, OTT platforms, and other mediums.”
The order was passed by the XI Additional Chief Judge at Hyderabad Civil Court on Friday i.e. 29th April 2022 after conducting a trial and checking the documents of the petitioner, Abdul Haleem Baig aka Sanober Baig. Mr. Baig seems to be the sole rights holder of the story and the script of the concept named, ‘The Jail’.
In the last week of February this year, the Telangana High Court had set aside the ad-interim injunction granted by the trial court against releasing, exhibiting, and publishing the series.
The plaintiff maintained that the concept was owned by Pride Media with him as the proprietor. It was written by Shaantanu Ray and Sheershak Anand and registered under the copyright act on 7th March 2018. It was registered at the Film Writers Association.
In his petition, Mr. Baig has described how the concept was developed and also explained the concept in detail, giving the details of the money invested by him at various stages of concept development.
The court had earlier taken on record the video clip of the trailer of Lock Upp and passed an ad-interim injunction order with an urgent notice prohibiting the exhibition of the show.
“I connected with the respective companies and requested them not to go ahead with the concept. But they turned a deaf ear and challenged that they have every right to stream as per the schedule. I had no option but to seek re-dressal from the judiciary. Since the show is not only similar to our concept but an absolute copy of the same, it’s a total infringement of the copyright and I have got a permanent injunction order. In spite of the court order, I see the show being aired, which is a contempt of the order. I am going to approach the court again, I have full faith in the judiciary and am sure that justice will be served,” said Sanober Baig.
So will the Lock Upp finale be streamed or will Ekta Kapoor have to resort to other means to get things moving on her OTT reality show?
