SWA Closes Copyright Complaint Against Sayani Gupta's Aasmani

A copyright complaint filed against actor-director Sayani Gupta and editor Paramita Ghosh over the short film Aasmani has been closed by the Screenwriters Association's Dispute Settlement Committee. The complaint had alleged that the film shared similarities with Prabha, an unfinished documentary.

After reviewing submissions from both sides and conducting independent expert comparisons, the committee concluded that the two works shared only an underlying idea. It found that the storytelling, character development, conflict and overall story arc differed between them.

The panel also observed that copyright law protects the expression of an idea rather than the idea itself, and took note of the fact that the complainant's work is a documentary based on the publicly known life of a real person.

The committee additionally referred to a separate defamation suit filed by Gupta against the complainant, in which a court has passed an order favourable to the filmmaker. Because certain issues in that suit overlap with those raised in the complaint, the matter is now sub judice, preventing the committee from proceeding with further adjudication.

The SWA proceedings have accordingly been concluded and the complaint closed at its end, without prejudice to the legal rights and remedies available to either party.

The dispute had surfaced during Aasmani's international festival run, which is continuing. Reacting to the closure, Gupta said, "As I had said earlier, truth will always prevail. I had respected the process and grateful that the truth has come out. It always does. This has been the most harrowing experience of my life. But as my grandmother would often quote Tagore and say 'tomar potaka jaare dao, bohibare dao shokoti'.. 'whoever you give your flag to bear, you also give them the strength to bear it.'"