The Dhanush-Nayanthara dispute and copyright law

Dhanush Nayanthara dispute copyright law

History has shown copyright can be misused to suppress speech that does not conform to one’s views. Numerous takedown requests on platforms like YouTube demonstrate how this strategy is widely used by political parties, corporations, and individuals to silence opponents and critics. While many of these actions are intentional, there is a widespread misconception of copyright law as a framework designed to protect the rights of copyright owners.

The copyright infringement suit initiated by South Indian actor and producer Dhanush against his peer Nayanthara could fall into either of these categories: a wilful attempt to threaten someone that one dislikes or an action arising out of ignorance of the framework of copyright law.

The 2015 film Naanum Rowdy Dhaan (‘I’m a rowdy, too’) was directed by Vignesh Shivan, who married Nayanthara in 2022. The film has been credited with encouraging their union. It was produced by Dhanush’s company Wunderbar Films. When Netflix prepared to produce a biopic based on Nayanthara’s life, it wished to include excerpts from that film.

On November 16, in a public letter addressed to Dhanush, Nayanthara wrote that she had sought Dhanush’s permission to use these excerpts about two years ago but had been met with silence. As an alternative Netflix et al. decided to use a short video clip that Nayanthara claimed to have captured with her mobile phone during the film’s making to use in the biopic.

Dhanush responded to this use with the lawsuit.

Depending on one’s perspective — particularly on the power and gender dynamics within India’s film industries — there are two sides available to take. Which side depends on the answers to two questions: (i) Copyright in which work has been infringed and who is the copyright owner in that work?; (ii) whether a copyright owner has the right to completely control the use of some copyrighted work?

Copyright law treats a film as an amalgamation of various copyrightable components. So while copyright law vests the copyright of a cinematographic product with its producer, not all copyrights related to a movie necessarily lie with the producer.