The judgement was delivered on a lawsuit filed by Sascha Sippy, son and grandson of original Sholay's producers Vijay Sippy and G P Sippy, in which he had alleged that the remake film 'Ram Gopal Varma ke Sholay' was violative of exclusive copyright held by the Sholay Media and Entertainment Pvt Ltd.
The high court imposed a fine of Rs 10 Lakh as "punitive damages" on Varma, his production house M/S RGV Productions Pvt Ltd as well as Varma Corporation Ltd and Madhu Varma and restrained them from using any character like Gabbar or Gabbar Singh in the original film.
It held that Varma's film gave an overall impression that it was a remake of 'Sholay' as the characters Gabbar and Gabbar Singh were misused, along with music, lyrics, dialogues and background score of the blockbuster featuring Dharmendra, Amitabh Bacchan, Sanjeev Kumar, Hema Malini and Amjad Khan among others.
"The publicity material coupled with the impugned film, gives an overall impression that it is a remake of the film Sholay.