Comedian Kapil Sharma’s The Great Indian Kapil Show has landed in trouble before its season finale airs today. Firoz Nadiadwala, who produced Hera Pheri (2000) and Phir Hera Pheri (2006), issued a cease-and-desist notice to Netflix India on September 18, citing copyright, trademark, and character rights infringement with regard to the comedy show’s latest promo.
Paresh Rawal as Baburao Ganpatrao Apte in ‘Hera Pheri’
In the promo of the final episode that sees Akshay Kumar as the guest, show regular Kiku Sharda can be seen dressed as and mimicking Paresh Rawal’s iconic character of Baburao Ganpatrao Apte from the Hera Pheri franchise. This hasn’t gone down well with Nadiadwala, who has demanded a compensation of R25 crore from the streaming giant.
Paresh Rawal as Baburao Ganpatrao Apte in ‘Hera Pheri’
Talking exclusively to mid-day, Nadiadwala recalled that he was shocked on seeing the promo earlier in the week. “I was shocked and dismayed to see The Great Indian Kapil Show’s promo featuring the character of Baburao Ganpatrao Apte aka Babu Bhaiyya in a buffoonish manner. The character has been exclusively conceived, developed, and produced under our creative and commercial authority. The rights, derivatives, underlying rights, IP rights, and copyright of all the Hera Pheri characters are exclusively owned by our company till universal perpetuity. My advocate Sana Raees Khan served the notice to Netflix on Thursday,” he said.
mid-day is in possession of a copy of the notice.
Kiku Sharda as the character in the show
The notice not only instructs the streamer to remove the Baburao references from the promo, but also states that airing the episode with those portions will lead to additional legal consequences. Nadiadwala added, “Use of the character in the promo constitutes a blatant act of infringement, including copyright violation. Baburao is a pure character for us, created beautifully by Paresh Rawal.
Kapil Sharma
This show is portraying him like a buffoon! We have asked for Rs 25 crore towards damages for using the character [in the promo] without authorisation, within two days of receipt of this notice. If they still telecast the show with Baburao’s character in it, those damages will be separate.” With this move, Nadiadwala’s objective is to set a precedent for every producer “so that nobody can take advantage again”.
A copy of the cease-and-desist notice issued to Netflix India (right) Firoz Nadiadwala
His legal counsel Khan added, “Unauthorised exploitation of my client’s iconic character is not just infringement, it is theft in its most blatant, commercial form.” mid-day reached out to Netflix India, which declined to comment. Sharma didn’t respond till press time.
