Three years after Bholaa arrived as a big screen action spectacle, Ajay Devgn’s film has swung back into headlines through a courtroom clash that now threatens its life after release. What began as a remake of the acclaimed Tamil hit Kaithi has turned into a sharp legal contest, with original producer Dream Warrior Pictures accusing the Hindi version’s backers of violating copyright and breaching the remake agreement.
Courtroom Stakes Rise Over Bholaa Rights
The dispute is now before the Bombay High Court, where a single judge bench of Justice Sharmila Deshmukh has reserved its order on a key preliminary issue, whether the court in Mumbai has jurisdiction to hear the matter at all. The producers of Bholaa have challenged the suit’s maintainability there, contending that the governing agreement points to Chennai as the appropriate forum.
Court filings from Dream Warrior Pictures state that the company retained full intellectual property ownership of Kaithi, the 2019 Tamil action thriller it produced. The filings say a March 29, 2023 agreement granted rights for the Hindi remake Bholaa on a fixed fee structure along with performance-linked consideration. According to the same filings, only an initial payment of Rs. 1 crore plus GST was made, while later instalments due in April and May 2023 remained unpaid.
That payment dispute had already reached another forum before landing in the High Court. Dream Warrior earlier approached the National Company Law Tribunal in Mumbai and sought insolvency proceedings against Reliance Entertainment over the unpaid amount. In August 2025, the tribunal dismissed that plea, holding that the dispute was not one for operational debt proceedings and belonged in a civil forum instead.
The company then sent a legal notice in October 2024 seeking Rs. 4 crore along with interest, stating that failure to pay within 30 days would terminate the agreement. After that deadline expired in November 2024, Dream Warrior’s position was that all rights connected to Bholaa stood restored to it. In the present commercial intellectual property suit filed on March 22, 2026, it has sought to restrain Reliance and Ajay Devgn Ffilms LLP from distributing, streaming, or monetising the film. Amazon Prime Video, Zee Entertainment Enterprises, and T-Series have also been named over alleged downstream exploitation after November 27, 2024.
That injunction request goes to the heart of why Kaithi remains central to the fight now.
Why The Kaithi License Is Back At The Center Of The Fight
Released on March 30, 2023, Bholaa was the official Hindi remake of Lokesh Kanagaraj’s Kaithi. Dream Warrior Pictures produced the original Tamil film, which starred Karthi and became one of the year’s most acclaimed action thrillers on its release in 2019. Because the present suit turns on who controlled remake and exploitation rights after the alleged payment default, the ownership chain of Kaithi is no longer background detail. It is the core of the case now before the Bombay High Court.
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