Drishyam 3 Telugu OTT release halted by Madras High Court after remake's director claims rights to Mohanlal-starrer

THither is badness word for Drishyam 3fans, as the OTT free of the film's Telugu nickname has run into legal trouble. According to Gulte, the Madras High Court has restrained the makers of Drishyam 3 from releasing the Telugu-dubbed version of the movie on OTT platforms after filmmaker Sripriya's film production company, Rajkumar Theatre Pvt Ltd, filed a petition seeking to restrain the film's OTT release.What did the court say?The Telugu version of the film was supposed to land on OTT platforms on June 18. The restraining order was passed by Justice K Kumaresh Babu. The court said, “It is to be noted that, in spite of service of private notice on them, none of the respondents has entered appearance or is present before this Court. Their names have also been printed in the cause list. In such view of the matter, there shall be an order of interim injunction, restraining the Respondents/Defendants, their servants, agents, employees, assignees, licensees and everyone claiming under or through the Respondents/Defendants from exploiting the copyrights of the applicant by releasing the same in the OTT Platform.”What is the case?Unlike the previous Drishyam films, which were remade in Telugu as Drushyam (2014) and Drushyam 2 (2021), the third film in the franchise was not remade in Telugu. Instead, the makers of the original Malayalam film decided to dub it in Telugu and release it on OTT. Both previous Telugu remakes starred Venkatesh in the lead role. This led director Sripriya, who had helmed the first remake, to claim ownership of the Telugu rights to the film.Sripriya and Rajkumar Sethupathi filed a petition seeking a ban on the Telugu-dubbed version's OTT release. Following their petition, the Madras High Court restrained the release of the Telugu-dubbed version on OTT.About Drishyam 3Drishyam 3 is the third installment in the popular Malayalam Drishyam franchise. The film sees Mohanlal returning as Georgekutty alongside Meena, Ansiba Hassan, Esther Anil, and Kalabhavan Shajon. The film follows the familiar track of a determined man who goes to great lengths to protect his family from the consequences of a crime.The film is directed by Jeethu Joseph and was released in theatres on May 21. The film is officially available to stream on Amazon Prime Video from June 18.The film was remade in Hindi as Drishyam, starring Ajay Devgn; in Telugu as Drushyam starring Venkatesh, and in Tamil as Papanasam with Kamal Haasan in the lead. The Hindi Drishyam 3 is set to release this October.