A case has been registered by the Mumbai Police against Google's Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Sundar Pichai and YouTube managing director Gautam Anand on a complaint of copyright infringement filed by Bollywood filmmaker Suneel Darshan.
The FIR was registered by the police pursuant to the order of the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s court.
Darshan had approached a Mumbai Court in a private complaint regarding his 2017 film 'Ek Haseena Thi Ek Deewana Tha' claiming that it was illegally uploaded on YouTube even though he had not given the film rights to anyone.
Darshan in his complaint had claimed that there exists a prima facie violation of his rights since the movie has now garnered billions of views after being illegally uploaded on YouTube and is generating revenue of which he is not a beneficiary.
Darshan also alleged that he had filed several complaints with YouTube, but no action was taken. The case has been filed against the Google chief as well since the company owns YouTube.
The Magistrate observed that piracy and copyright infringement have become a menace due to rapid advancement of technology and it causes a huge loss of money to the film and television industry.
Along with Mr Pichai and Gautam Anand five other employees of the tech giant have been named in the FIR.
The film 'Ek Haseena Thi Ek Deewana Tha' was written, produced and directed by Suneel Darshan. It had Shiv Darshan, Natasha Fernandez and Upen Patel in lead roles.
