Unconventional approaches can have unexpected consequences.

This is what the Nitish Kumar Government is finding after it decided to use an unconventional film Teesri Kasam (The Third Oath), which portrays society in rural Bihar of the 1960s, to contrast with developments wrought in the State during its regime.

On a complaint by the movie’s copyright owners, the Delhi High Court has restrained the State Government from any future screening of the film, directed by iconic Basu Bhattacharya.

The National Award winning Raj Kapoor-Waheeda Rehman starrer was reportedly screened as part of the State Government’s rural development campaign from February 25 to March 15. The film would be paused at intervals for live advertisements on the various ongoing rural schemes.

The film, adapted from Phanishwarnath Renu’s short story Mare Gaye Gulfam , was partly shot in Bihar’s Araria district.

Amla Shailendra Mazumdar, a daughter of the film’s producer, the late Shailendra, approached the Delhi High Court stating that the Bihar Government had screened the film without the permission of the copyright owners — family members of the producer.

Shailendra’s two sons and two daughters termed the screening of the movie without their approval illegal. They have sent the Bihar Government a legal notice seeking a compensation of Rs 15 crore for screening more than 3,000 shows of the movie. The Bihar Government is understood to have rubbished this claim, saying it had purchased the rights of the film in the late 1970s.

The Court had also clarified that if the State has purchased the rights to the film or obtained the permission of the licence-holders, then there would be no injunction on screening the film.

A filmy dishoom-dishoom ahead?

Published on June 4, 2013