Delhi High Court issues summons to Bear Grylls on Indian scriptwriter's plea alleging copyright infringement

Delhi High Court issues summons to Bear Grylls on Indian scriptwriter's plea alleging copyright infringement

The matter will be heard on 22 February

The Delhi High Court has issued a summons to British adventurer and television presenter Bear Grylls and others on a suit filed by an Indian script writer Arrmann Shankar Shharma, claiming his copyright in the original literary work was infringed by the show 'Get Out Alive with Bear Grylls'.

The suit sought a permanent injunction restraining the defendants from infringing upon the Indian writer's copyright and sought damages.

The bench of Justice Amit Bansal issued summons to other defendants - NBC Universal Inc, its Vice President Tom Shelly, Warner Brothers Discovery, OTT platform Hotstar, The Walt Disney, and Net Geo India.

'Get Out Alive with Bear Grylls', produced by Grylls, NBC and Shelly, is broadcast on Disney+Hotstar, an OTT platform owned and run by Walt Disney.

The plaintiff, Shharma, is engaged in script writing, television/film production, reality TV production and direction. He has been working on several projects and developing various literary/dramatic works in multiple forms for reality television and media entertainment.

Shharma had filed the suit through advocates Imran Ali and Manpreet Kaur. He stated that in 2009, he conceived and developed a script titled Aakhri Dum Takk (Till the Last Breath) for a TV reality show containing 7-8 episodes. It entailed taking 20 people to a forest to take up challenges and overcome the natural obstacles in different extreme terrains and sail through for about a month without any assistance.

The plaintiff stated that the copyright of the script, production format and concept was duly registered and granted to him by the Registrar of Copyrights, Corporation Office, Government of India on 10 January 2011. It was also registered with the Film Writers Association, Mumbai.

He approached the court contending that Grylls' show, running since 2013, infringed on his original copyright work Aakhri Dum Takk.

The suit stated, "Shockingly, in the month of March 2022, the plaintiff, through one of his close friends, came to know that his copyright in the aforesaid original literary work was being infringed by the defendants and a show by the name of 'Get Out Alive with Bear Grylls' is being produced by defendant No. 1, 2 & 4 and is getting broadcasted on Disney+Hotstar (defendant No. 5), an OTT platform owned and run by defendant No. 6."

Shharma claimed that he watched all eight episodes of the Grylls show and collected evidence. It was an exact copy of his copyrighted work.

The suit further mentioned, "The locations mentioned in the said work are the same as that of the infringed show. The entry, interval, climax, and the concept of the entire show were based upon and filmed in the manner so narrated and formulated by the plaintiff in his original copyrighted script, which was submitted to defendant No. 3 (Warner Brothers Discovery), keeping in mind the defendant No. 1 (Grylls) as host of the program."