MUMBAI, Aug. 20 -- The Bombay High Court on Monday dismissed a plea filed by the producer of a 1993 Bollywood movie, Lootere, seeking to restrain the release of a web series with the same title, ruling that registering a film title with an industry body is purely a private arrangement and does not create a statutory right like copyright. A single-judge bench of justice Sandeep Marne said that registrations granted by bodies like producers' associations are an internal arrangement between their members and do not have any sanctity in law. "No statute confers right on associations of film producers to grant registration of titles or any other copyrightable works," the bench said, while rejecting the plea filed by Sunil Saberwal, producer of the 1993 Hindi movie Lootere. In his plea filed last year, Saberwal claimed that Star India was violating his copyright by producing an eight-part web series titled Lootere for its streaming platform, Disney+ Hotstar. He said that he had produced a film called Lootere, starring Sunny Deol and Juhi Chawla, among others, in 1993. The film was registered with the Registrar of Copyrights, and its title was registered with the Western India Film Producers' Association. Saberwal approached the high court last year after noticing that Star India was making a web series called Lootere. Even though the series was released on Disney+ Hotstar in May 2024, Saberwal sought its discontinuation from the streaming platform. However, Star India argued that several Hindi films with the same titles were released over the years, such as Hera Pheri, Aankhen, Dilwale, Dostana, Shandaar, and Dosti. Therefore, a mere similarity in the title cannot be a ground to claim a copyright violation, and what needs to be established is similarity in the literary works of the two films, it argued. Accepting this argument, the bench said, "...so long as the story of the two films is different, mere similarity in the title would not give rise to an actionable claim under the provisions of (the) Copyright Act." The bench also said that the film's registration with the producers' association is a purely private arrangement, binding only on its members and has no sanctity in law. Such a contractual right cannot be enforced against a non-member, like Star India, it added....