Delhi HC summons adventurer Bear Grylls over copyright plea

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New Delhi, December 23

The Delhi High Court on Friday issued summons to British adventurer and television presenter Bear Grylls and others on a suit filed by Indian author-producer Arrmann Shankar Shharma claiming his copyright in the original literary work was infringed by the show ‘Get Out Alive with Bear Grylls’.

‘Get Out Alive with Bear Grylls’ is being produced by Grylls, NBC Universal Inc and its vice-president Tom Shelly, and is broadcast on Disney+ Hotstar, an OTT platform owned and run by Walt Disney.

Acting on Shharma’s suit seeking a permanent injunction restraining the defendants from infringing upon his copyright and damages, Justice Amit Bansal issued summons to other defendants—NBC Universal Inc and Shelly, Warner Brothers Discovery, Hotstar, The Walt Disney and Net Geo India. The high court asked the defendants to file their written statements and listed the matter for further hearing on February 22, 2023.

Plaintiff Shharma said he was engaged in the work of script writing, television/film production, reality TV production and direction, and has been working on several projects and developing various literary/ dramatic works in multiple forms for the purpose of reality television and media entertainment.

He said in 2009, he conceived and developed, in the form of a script, a reality show for the television titled ‘Aakhri Dum Takk-Till the Last Breath’, as per which a TV reality programme of seven to eight episodes was to be produced by taking 20 persons to jungle to take up challenges to overcome the natural obstacles in different extreme terrains and sail through for about a month without any help.

He said the copyright of the script, production format and concept was duly registered and granted to the plaintiff by the Registrar of Copyrights, Corporation Office, Government of India, on January 10, 201. (With PTI inputs)