BENGALURU: The High Court of Karnataka on January 8 will frame charges for contempt of court against 10 accused, including BBC (UK), Discovery and Netflix, for airing the film ‘Wild Karnataka’ or ‘India’s Wild Karnataka’, violating an interim order passed, restraining them from telecasting the film.
The accused are Sarath Champati, Kalyan Varma, Amoghavarsha J S, Wild Karnataka, Mudskipper Labs Private Limited, Icon Films Ltd., ITV Studios Global Distribution Ltd., Discovery Communications India, British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), United Kingdom, and Netflix Entertainment Services India LLP.
“We are only considering the prima facie case to direct the accused to answer the charge. The material on record shows that even after the interim order, the footage was in the air, no matter broadcast by whom. To record a precise finding with regard to the involvement of the accused, a trial is necessary.
In our opinion, there is sufficient material on record to frame charges against the accused,” a division bench of Justice P S Dinesh Kumar and Justice T G Shivashankare Gowda said, after hearing a civil contempt petition filed by Ravindra N Redkar and Ullash Kumar R K on Thursday, while posting the matter to January 8 for framing of charges.
The contempt petition was filed for violating an interim order passed by the court, restraining Sarath Champati, Kalyan Varma, Amoghavarsha, Wild Karnataka and Mudskipper and anyone claiming under or through them from using, publishing, reproducing, broadcasting, telecasting, marketing, selling, distributing, exhibiting or in any way dealing with the film or raw footage captured by Sarath, Kalyan Varma and Amoghavarsha and their team under the MoU dated November 3, 2014, with the Karnataka forest department.
The interim order dated June 29, 2021, was passed after hearing the petition filed by Ravindra N Redkar and Ullash Kumar, contending that though the film was intended to be on a non-profit basis to promote conservation and for educational purposes, Sarath, Kalyan Varma and Amoghavarsha commercially sold it for profit without the knowledge or approval of the KFD, and the film was distributed in over 100 countries to airlines, broadcasters, networks, channels, streaming partners and theatres.
They also alleged that three persons had pocketed millions of rupees without remitting any amount towards the Tiger Reserve Fund. KFD officials waived all shooting fees and deposits and the state’s vehicles and drivers were utilised. Boarding and lodging were also given at forest resthouses for free.