Competition law and the entertainment industry in India: a case of overreach?
Published: 01 March 2013 Reading Time: 1 mins
In Brief
In January 2012, Rajkamal Films, an Indian production and distribution company, released Vishwaroopam, a spy thriller set in Afghanistan and the United States.
The film’s content has been controversial — it was initially banned in one state — but there was also a dispute as to the manner of its distribution that may have wider implications for the Indian entertainment industry.
You started with Kamal Hassan’s case in your article. Agreed that there needs to be a cautious approach by the competition commission in dealing with issues of culture and entertainment. But in Kamal’s case, isn’t there a reason to believe that there is some justification?
For want of space we had to omit details of cases. There seems to be a clear justification for the Commission’s intervention in the Rajkamal Films case. The dispute is with regard to the producer’s right to sell his product through a medium/media of his/her choice. Language or culture is not at stake in this case. While the Commission has examined similar cases in the past (25/2010, for instance, in which six associations were found guilty of restricting supply of films), this case is novel insofar as Rajkamal Films wanted to release its film through DTH a day before it was planning to release the film through theatres. In earlier cases, producer/ distributors drew the Commission’s attention to unreasonably long holdback period (for exploitation of video, DTH rights) imposed by theatre owners’ associations.
There are other cases related to the film industry in which the Commission’s competence is beyond dispute. Consider, for instance, Ajay Devgn’s case (No. 66/2012) against Yashraj Films. The latter booked single screens in advance for a bouquet of films including a movie that was widely expected to be a blockbuster and an untitled film. Yashraj Films offered single screen theatre owners a take it or leave it offer that did not allow the latter a choice and ultimately restricted the range of choices available to consumers.
Vikas