The Court further noted that Plaintiffs were able to show that a prima facie case has been established in their favour. During the course of argument, the Defendants never claimed that they had any right or title on the song, to which the Court stated that the Defendants were liable to be restrained on this very ground itself. The Court stated that since they were already paying the license fee with respect to use of song in the tv shows, the Defendants were aware of the copyright of the Plaintiff.

One interesting fact in the case is that Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited, one of the Defendant has been paying license fee to the Plaintiff for playing the song in their tv shows.

Rajesh Roshan case, decided by the Bombay High Court, which held that copying even a part of the song in which another person has a copyright amounts to infringement of that copyright. The Plaintiffs countered the above arguments by citing Ram Sampath v. The Defendants argued that New Song forms an integral part of the film and therefore, if it is removed, the Defendants will suffer irreparable damages. The Defendants stated that only similarity between the Old Song and New Song is the use of generic verse “Dhagala Lagli”, other than that every part of lyrics is different. Further, they also claimed that “ Dhagala Lagali” is a marathi folk song which was sung as a rain song. The Defendants claimed that the song used in their film Dream Girl is completely different from the song of the 1979 film. Therefore, the Plaintiffs claimed that they continue to be the owners of the Old Song as per provisions of the Copyright Act, 1957 and that the Defendants by including New Song in their film are infringing Plaintiff’s rights. A Marathi movie “ Bot Lavin Tithe Gudgulya” was released during this period and included the song “ Var Dhagala Lagali Kal” (“ Old Song”) whose recreated version “ Dhagala Lagali” (“ New Song”) has been used by the Defendants in their film Dream Girl. Sadichha Chitra (“ Producer”), through which the Producer agreed to assign, in perpetuity, copyright and sound recording and underlying musical and literary works of all the songs of all the films produced by her during the period of November 2 nd 1978 – November 1 st 1979. The Plaintiff entered into an agreement with producer Ms. decided that Balaji Motion Pictures, ALT Digital Media Entertainment Limited and Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (“ Defendants”) have infringed SAREGAMA’s (“ Plaintiff”) copyright in the song “ Var Dhagala Lagali Kal” by including the song “ Dhagala Lagali” in their movie Dream Girl. The Delhi High Court (“ Court”) in the case of SAREGAMA India Limited v. No Dhagala Lagali in theatres? Here’s the reason why Delhi High Court restrained Balaji from using it in Dream Girl

Dhagala lagli kal lyrics in marathi