After receiving the notice, Raju Srivastava is now planning to file a complaint against Sony for copyright infringement, defamation and mental harassment.
Comedian Raju Srivastava who rose to fame after participating in The Great Indian Laughter Challenge, was in for a shock after receiving a legal notice. The comedian was sent a legal notice from Sony TV on November 22. The notice asked asked him to take down the video of Kaun Banega Crorepati 10, which he had uploaded sometime back and also asked him to apologise. The notice was sent for infringement of rights over what is owned by Sony.
The reality game show hosted by Amitabh Bachchan, had used a sound clipping of Raju Srivastava's voice and the contestant was asked to guess the name of the celebrity. When Srivastava got to know about this he felt honoured that Bachchan had mentioned his name, due to which he posted the KBC 10 clipping on his official Facebook page.
In a strange turn of events, On Dec 1, Facebook on its own deleted the content and Srivastava was shocked to know that this was done without even a single verification of the allegation.
Raju Srivastava replied to the notice through his advocate Sneha Singh. The comedian said that he at no point had commercially exploited the content and also explained that he had uploaded the clip because of the sentiments attached. Srivastava then went on to say that Sony TV should have taken permission from him before playing his voice on KBC. He called the notice as "baseless, illegal and misconceived in law." "
"It's his voice. He has a right over his voice and he did not even think about copyright infringement by Sony as he just felt honoured. But what they did was extremely shocking," said Sneha Singh.
In the six page reply filed by Srivastava, he is now seeking an "unconditional apology" from Sony TV and has also asked them to cough up Rs 40,00,000 damages within 15 days of receiving the notice. If they do not do so, Srivastava is also planning to now file criminal case against Sony for copyright infringement, defamation and for mental harassment.