Music and film rights — owning what you make, and selling it piece by piece

What these agreements are for

A film looks like one product, but legally it is a bundle of rights held by many people until somebody gathers them. The writer owns the story until it is assigned. The composer owns the tune, the lyricist the words, the label the recording. The actors have rights in their performances. The author of a novel the film adapts owns the book. A producer who wants to sell the film to a cinema chain, a television channel or a streaming platform must be able to show that all of these rights have been acquired, or licensed, for every use the buyer intends.

Music and film rights agreements do two jobs. On the way in, they acquire rights from creators and owners so that the producer or label holds a clean package. On the way out, they sell or license that package, usually in pieces — a cinema release to one distributor, television to a broadcaster, streaming to a platform, the songs to a label, a Telugu remake to another producer. The same principles apply to a music catalogue: songwriters, singers and producers contribute rights, and the label or publisher licenses them to platforms, advertisers and film-makers.

The general law of licensing — the written licence rule, defaults for term and territory, exclusivity, new media and fee structures — is covered in our content licensing guide, and the rights of performers in our artist and performer guide. This page is about assembling and selling rights in films and music.

A film is many copyrights at once

Section 13(4) of the Copyright Act makes the point directly: the copyright in a cinematograph film or a sound recording does not affect the separate copyright in any work of which a substantial part is included in it. So a single film carries:

Section 14(d) gives the owner of a film the rights to make copies, sell or rent copies, and communicate the film to the public. Section 14(e) gives similar rights in a sound recording. These are what the producer later sells. They are narrower than people assume: owning the film does not by itself give the right to release its songs as separate audio tracks, or to make a remake, unless the underlying rights in the music and story were acquired for those uses too.

The producer as author, and commissioned films

Section 2(d)(v) makes the producer the author of a cinematograph film, and Section 2(uu) defines the producer as the person who takes the initiative and responsibility for making the work. That is a question of fact, which is why co-productions and films made through production services companies should say in writing who the producer is.

Where a film is made for someone else — a corporate film, an advertisement, a wedding film — Section 17(b) provides that the person at whose instance a cinematograph film is made for valuable consideration is the first owner, unless there is an agreement to the contrary. That rule helps brands commissioning advertisements, but it does not deliver the underlying music or script, which must still be acquired. Employment and commissioning rules are explained in our guide on who owns the work.

Production companies often set up a separate company for each film. The rights should be acquired in that company’s name, or assigned into it before the film is sold, so that the chain of title ends in the entity that signs the sale.

Chain of title

Chain of title is the file of documents that proves each link from the original creators to the seller. Platforms, broadcasters, distributors, financiers and insurers ask for it, and they read it. A typical chain-of-title file for a feature film contains:

• Option and assignment of the source material, with proof of the author’s own title.
• Writer agreements for story, screenplay and dialogue, with all drafts covered.
• Director’s agreement.
• Composer and lyricist agreements for every song and the score.
• Agreements or consents from lead cast, singers and musicians.
• Crew agreements with assignment of their contributions.
• Licences for any existing music, clips, photographs or artwork used.
• Life-rights agreements and releases for real people depicted.
• Title registration and search results.
• Copyright registration certificates, if obtained.
• Any assignment between the production company and the selling company.

Gaps are easier to fill during production than after release, when a writer or composer who realises the film is valuable may ask for more money. The discipline is simple: nobody starts work until the agreement is signed, and every payment is made by bank transfer against it.

Books and stories: option and purchase

When a film is based on a published novel, a short story, a play, a news article or a web series, the producer needs the right to adapt it. Buying outright is expensive before a script exists or money is raised, so the usual structure is an option: the producer pays an option fee for the exclusive right, during an option period, to buy the film rights at an agreed purchase price.

The option agreement should state the option fee and whether it is credited against the purchase price; the option period (commonly twelve to eighteen months) and whether it can be extended for a further fee; what the producer may do during the option, such as commissioning scripts and approaching financiers; the purchase price, sometimes a percentage of the budget with a floor and a ceiling; and the rights that transfer on exercise. The assignment itself should be attached as a schedule, so that exercising the option only requires a notice and payment.

The rights acquired should be listed: the right to adapt into a film and series, to use the title, to change the story, to make sequels, prequels and remakes, dubbing and subtitles, and allied rights such as publishing a screenplay, making trailers and merchandise. The author usually keeps print and audiobook rights, stage rights, and sometimes sequel-book rights. Credit (“Based on the novel by…”) and whether the author has any say in the script should be agreed. Check that the author actually holds film rights — some publishing contracts give the publisher a share or control.

Writers of the story, screenplay and dialogue

Screenwriters are often freelancers, so they own what they write unless it is assigned in writing. A writer agreement should describe the work (story, screenplay, dialogue, in which language), the stages of delivery (treatment, first draft, revisions, final draft), the fee for each stage, and the assignment of all rights in every draft, including material the producer rejects.

Credit is a significant issue for writers, and screenwriters’ associations have model terms and dispute mechanisms. The agreement should say how credit is decided when more than one writer works on a script. Writers are authors of literary works in the film, so the royalty right described below applies to them where their work is utilised in forms other than exhibition in cinemas. A writer’s moral right to be identified, discussed in our guide on moral rights, also continues.

Producers receive many unsolicited scripts. To avoid later claims that an idea was copied, many decline to read them without a submission agreement, and keep records of their own development. Ideas themselves are not protected by copyright, but a detailed treatment can be, and a confidentiality agreement or an NDA may protect an idea shared in confidence.

The director

Indian law does not make the director an author of the film; the producer is. The director’s creative contribution is nevertheless central, and the director agreement should cover the services (pre-production, shoot, post-production, promotion), the schedule, the fee and its instalments, credit, the final cut — who decides the version released — and an assignment of any copyright the director creates, such as additions to the script, storyboards or shot designs.

Directors who also write should sign both a writing and a directing agreement, or one agreement covering both roles clearly. If the director leaves or is replaced, the agreement should say who owns the work done so far and what credit is given.

Real people and life rights

Biopics, true-crime stories and films based on real events carry risks beyond copyright. Facts are not owned by anyone, and the Supreme Court in R. Rajagopal v. State of Tamil Nadu (1994) recognised that matters of public record can be published. But the right to privacy, recognised as a fundamental right in 2017, defamation, and the personality rights of well-known people can all be engaged by a film that dramatises a person’s private life or puts invented words in their mouth. Courts have been asked to stop releases on these grounds.

A life-rights agreement with the person, or the family of a deceased person, gives consent to portray them, access to information and material, and a promise not to sue on specified grounds. It should state what the film may depict, whether fictionalisation is allowed, any approval rights (which producers resist), payment, and credit. Where consent cannot be obtained, producers rely on public sources, legal review of the script, and disclaimers — which reduce but do not remove the risk. Our defamation guide explains how such claims arise.

Titles

A single title is generally not protected by copyright. In practice, Indian producers register titles with producers’ associations, whose rules resolve disputes between members who want the same title. That registration is contractual among members rather than a statutory right. Titles of successful films and franchises can be registered as trademarks for films and merchandise, and a well-known title can be protected through a passing-off action if another film uses it to mislead.

Before announcing a title, run a search of association registrations and the trademark register, and consider a trademark registration for a series or franchise. A title licensed from a book or an older film should be dealt with in the rights agreement.

Songs written for the film

Film songs are the part of Indian cinema most often exploited separately — on radio, streaming apps, reels, television and at weddings for decades. The producer needs agreements with the composer for the music and with each lyricist for the words, commissioning the songs and assigning copyright in them, or licensing them for the film and allied uses.

The agreement should list the songs, delivery of demos and final compositions, the fee, credit, and the scope of rights: synchronisation with the film, trailers and promotions, release of the songs as sound recordings, and use in remakes or dubbed versions. It should also address the composer’s own team — programmers, arrangers and session musicians — whose contributions must be covered by the composer’s agreements with them. The singers’ agreements, covered in our guide on recording sessions, give the performers’ consent.

The royalty right that cannot be signed away

Before 2012, it was common for producers and labels to take an assignment of all rights from composers and lyricists for a single fee. The Copyright (Amendment) Act, 2012 changed that. Provisos added to Section 18 say that the author of a literary or musical work included in a cinematograph film or a sound recording shall not assign or waive the right to receive royalties, to be shared on an equal basis with the assignee, for utilisation of the work in any form other than communication of the work to the public along with the film in a cinema hall — except to legal heirs or to a copyright society for collection and distribution. Any agreement to the contrary is void. Sections 19(9) and 19(10) say the same in relation to assignments for making a film or sound recording.

In practice this means that when a film song is streamed, broadcast on radio or television, or played in public, the lyricist and composer are entitled to share royalties, typically collected through a copyright society. Agreements should not try to exclude this right; they should acknowledge it and deal with how it is collected. How far it extends to particular uses has been debated, so producers and labels should take advice on current practice rather than relying on older templates.

Background score

The background score is often composed by a different composer from the songs, and is recorded in sessions with musicians. It is a musical work and a sound recording like any song. The agreement should assign or license the score for the film and allied uses, and say whether the composer may reuse cues in other projects. Library music used as temporary or final score must be licensed on terms that cover every release of the film, including streaming worldwide if that is the plan.

Existing songs and clips

Using an existing song — a classic playing on a radio, a hit recreated in a party scene, a devotional track in a temple sequence — needs permission from the owners of both the composition and lyrics and the sound recording, or a new recording with permission for the composition. Recreating an old song with a new arrangement requires a licence from the owner of the song, and the credit and royalty questions should be settled.

Clips from other films, news footage, photographs and artwork seen on screen need their own licences. A few seconds may be enough to infringe, and fair dealing under Section 52 is limited to specified purposes; it does not simply excuse short use in a commercial film. The practice of clearing everything that appears or is heard, and keeping a clearance log, is the only reliable way to deliver a clean chain of title.

Selling the music rights to a label

Many Indian producers sell the music rights of a film to a music label before release, sometimes before the songs are recorded, because the label’s payment helps fund production and its marketing helps the film. The label acquires the right to release the songs as sound recordings on audio and video platforms, radio, television and physical formats, often for the full term of copyright and worldwide.

The agreement with the label should define what is sold: the sound recordings of the songs only, or also the background score; audio only, or audio-visual song videos as well; and whether the label may license the songs for use in other films, advertisements and remixes. It should fix the price and when it is paid, any share of revenue for the producer, the label’s obligation to promote, credits on platforms, and the release date so that songs do not come out before or long after the film. The producer should keep the right to use the songs in the film, trailers and promotion, and in dubbed versions, without paying the label.

The composer’s and lyricist’s royalty entitlements continue through the label’s exploitation, so the label agreement should confirm that the label will deal with them, and the producer’s agreements with the creators should be consistent with what is sold.

The rights bundles

The finished film is usually sold in parts. Each bundle can go to a different buyer, for a different term and territory.

Buyers increasingly want several bundles together — worldwide digital with satellite, for example — and platforms producing original films often acquire everything. Smaller producers should decide which bundles to sell together and which to hold back, because each bundle sold separately can bring its own price.

Defining each bundle

Most disputes between producers and buyers come from loose definitions. “Digital rights” may or may not include advertising-supported platforms, clips on social media, or broadcast of a streaming channel on a smart television. “Satellite rights” written years ago may not say whether the channel’s app is included. The agreement should define each right by the means of delivery and the business model, list what is excluded, and allocate new forms of exploitation, as explained under new media in our licensing guide.

For each bundle the agreement should also state the territory, the language versions, the licence period or whether rights are assigned outright, exclusivity, holdbacks between windows, the number of runs for television, and whether the buyer may sub-license. Where one bundle is sold and another kept, the agreement should protect the kept bundle — a satellite buyer should not be free to stream the film on its app if digital rights were sold to someone else.

Remakes, dubbing and sequels

Indian films are remade across languages more than almost anywhere else, and dubbed versions of South Indian films in Hindi have become a major market. Remake rights and dubbing rights are separate. A remake is a new film based on the story, screenplay and characters; a dub is the same film with a new soundtrack in another language.

A remake agreement should identify the original film, the language or languages of the remake, the territory, whether the original title and songs may be used, the time within which the remake must be made, credit to the original, and the price. The original producer should first check that it acquired remake rights from the writer and source author; many older agreements do not mention them. Dubbing agreements should cover who prepares the dub, ownership of the dubbed track, and the songs, which may need fresh lyrics in the new language and fresh agreements with the lyricist and singers.

Sequel, prequel and spin-off rights — the right to make new films with the same characters — should be dealt with at the start, with the writer and source author, and with lead actors whose participation may be important.

Assign or license the bundles?

Rights may be assigned (ownership transfers for the stated scope) or licensed (permission only). Broadcasters and platforms in India have often taken assignments of satellite or digital rights for long periods or in perpetuity, while producers increasingly prefer licences for a term, after which the rights come back and can be sold again.

An assignment must be in writing and must name the work and spell out the rights, how long they last, where they apply and what is paid for them, under Section 19. Leave the period out and the law reads in five years; leave the territory out and it reads in India. For a long-term asset like a film, those defaults can badly misfire, so both duration and territory should always be written. The practical differences between assignment and licence are compared in our licensing guide.

Price, guarantees and overflow

Film rights are sold for a fixed price, for a minimum guarantee against a share of revenue, or for a pure revenue share. A distributor that pays a minimum guarantee for theatrical rights recoups it, with its commission and costs, from the film’s collections, and pays the producer any “overflow” above that. The agreement should define collections, the distributor’s commission, which costs may be deducted (prints and publicity, virtual print fees, taxes), and the timing and form of statements.

For streaming, platforms usually pay a fixed licence fee, sometimes with bonuses linked to viewership. Viewership data is controlled by the platform, so any bonus should be tied to measures the producer can verify. Reporting and audit terms are explained in our licensing guide.

Collection accounts and waterfalls

When several people have a share in a film’s income — co-producers, financiers, talent with profit participation, a sales agent — it is common to route all income into a collection account managed by an independent party, which pays out according to an agreed order of priority, called a waterfall. The waterfall typically pays collection costs first, then sales agent commissions and expenses, then financiers, then deferred fees, and finally profit shares.

Even small films benefit from a simple version: one bank account for the film’s income, statements to every participant, and a written order of payment. It prevents disputes about who was paid first, and it reassures investors. The definitions of gross receipts and net profits should be as precise as in any revenue-sharing agreement.

Co-production

Co-producers share the cost, work and ownership of a film. A co-production agreement should state each party’s contribution of money, services, locations or rights; who is the producer for the purposes of authorship; the percentage ownership of copyright in the film and each bundle; who takes creative and business decisions and what happens in deadlock; how the budget and overruns are handled; credit; how income is collected and shared; and what happens if one party does not fund its share.

A co-production is a joint venture for one project, and it is often cleaner to form a special purpose company to hold the rights. The issues are discussed more generally in our joint venture guide. International co-productions under India’s treaties with other countries have additional requirements for nationality of creative personnel and approval, which should be checked at the outset.

Financing against rights

Film finance in India often comes from pre-sales — selling satellite, digital or music rights before completion — supplemented by private investors, loans, brand integrations and state subsidies. Each source takes security or priority over some part of the rights or income, and the agreements must fit together: a platform that has pre-bought digital rights will not accept a financier’s charge over those same rights.

Investors should receive a clear document stating what they are paying for — a share of profits, a share of a particular bundle, or a return of capital with interest — and when they are paid in the waterfall. Promises of fixed returns may bring the arrangement within financial regulation, so investment documents should be reviewed carefully. Where a lender takes a charge over the film’s rights, the charge should be registered if the borrower is a company.

Sales agents, festivals and markets

Independent films often reach buyers through a sales agent, who represents the film at markets and festivals and negotiates sales territory by territory. The sales agency agreement should state the territories and rights the agent may sell, the term, the commission on each sale, which marketing costs the agent may recover and up to what cap, the producer’s approval of each sale, and that buyers pay into the collection account rather than to the agent. At the end of the term, the agent should hand over contracts and materials and stop representing the film.

Festival submissions raise their own points. Many festivals require a premiere status — world, Asian or national — and a producer who screens the film early at a smaller event may lose eligibility for a larger one. Screening a film at a festival also involves a limited licence to show it, and festivals ask for confirmation that music and clips are cleared for festival exhibition. Keep festival and market commitments in view when signing distribution deals, so that a platform’s exclusivity does not prevent a festival run already promised.

Series and platform originals

When a streaming platform commissions a series or a film as an “original”, the structure is different. The platform usually funds the whole budget, and in return takes ownership of all rights worldwide, with the production house acting as a service provider paid a production fee and sometimes a bonus. The production house must still acquire every underlying right and pass it on, and the platform’s agreement will demand a complete chain of title and strict compliance with its standards.

Production houses should look at who keeps the format and the characters, whether they have any share in later seasons, spin-offs and remakes, what happens to material developed but not used, and when the platform may cancel. Creators who bring their own story to a platform should consider whether to license rather than assign, and to keep rights in other languages or media where the platform will not use them.

Delivery materials

A sale is not complete until the buyer receives the delivery materials. Platforms and broadcasters issue detailed delivery schedules that include picture and sound masters to technical specifications, subtitle files, dubbed tracks, music and effects tracks, trailers, stills, key art, music cue sheets listing every piece of music with its owners and duration, a certificate from the Central Board of Film Certification where needed, and the chain-of-title documents.

The agreement should attach the delivery schedule, give a delivery date, allow a technical check with time to correct faults, and make payment instalments due on acceptance. Producers should budget for delivery from the start; the cost of preparing compliant masters and paperwork is often underestimated.

Certification and content rules

Films exhibited in cinemas need a certificate under the Cinematograph Act, 1952, which was amended in 2023 to introduce age-based categories and to address unauthorised recording and exhibition. Content published on streaming platforms must follow the Code of Ethics under the IT (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021: the publisher gives each title an age rating, offers parental locks for adult material, and answers complaints through a grievance process.

Rights agreements should say who is responsible for certification and classification, who pays for any cuts, whether the buyer may edit for its platform or for broadcast standards, and what happens if a court or authority restrains release. A producer should warrant that it knows of no claim that would prevent release, and the buyer should not be allowed to make edits that change the meaning of the film without approval.

Music catalogues: recording, publishing and distribution

Outside films, music rights are organised around three kinds of agreement:

• Recording agreements between an artist and a label, under which the label funds and owns or licenses the master recordings, releases and markets them, and pays the artist a royalty or share.
• Publishing agreements between a songwriter and a publisher, under which the publisher administers the composition and lyrics, licenses them for recordings, films and advertisements, and collects royalties.
• Distribution agreements under which an independent artist or label places recordings on streaming platforms through a distributor or aggregator, keeping ownership.

Each should state the works covered (a single, an album, everything written during the term), the term and any option periods, the territory, ownership of masters and whether they revert, royalty or revenue-share rates and what they are calculated on, recoupment of advances and recording costs, statements and audit, creative approvals, and what happens at the end. Artists should be wary of agreements that assign all future compositions for a long period for a small advance.

Digital distribution and aggregators

Independent musicians and small labels usually reach streaming platforms through aggregators, which deliver the tracks, collect revenue and pay a share or charge a fee. The agreement with an aggregator should make clear that ownership stays with the artist or label, list the platforms, state the revenue share or fee, the reporting period, and how quickly the aggregator must remove tracks on request.

Content identification systems on video platforms match uploads against registered recordings and can claim revenue from videos that use them. The aggregator agreement should say who may register tracks in such systems, and how wrongful claims — for example, against the artist’s own videos or a licensed film — are resolved. When a film’s songs are sold to a label, the producer should ensure the label does not claim the producer’s own trailers and promotions.

Covers, remixes and samples

A cover version is a new recording of an existing song. Section 31C provides a statutory licence for version recordings of literary, dramatic or musical works already recorded with the owner’s consent, subject to conditions that include prior notice to the owner, the lapse of five calendar years after the year of the first recording, the same medium as the last recording unless it is no longer in use, no alteration of the work except where technically necessary, and payment of royalties at the prescribed rate in advance or as determined. Most covers released commercially proceed instead by licence from the publisher or label.

Remixes use the original sound recording as well as the composition, so they need licences from the label and the publisher. Samples — fragments of recordings used in new tracks — need the same two clearances. Indian law does not treat a short sample as automatically free, and the practice of using a recognisable hook without clearance is one of the commonest sources of claims.

Copyright societies

Copyright societies registered under Section 33 license works on behalf of their members and distribute royalties. In music, separate societies have represented authors, composers and publishers of songs, owners of sound recordings, and performers, and the landscape has changed over time with registrations, renewals and litigation. Film and music agreements should state whether the creator is a member of a society, which rights the society administers, and how society income is shared, so that the producer or label does not grant a right the society controls.

The royalty right of composers and lyricists described above is typically collected through a society, which is why many film songwriters join one. Businesses that play music in public, such as hotels and event venues, obtain licences from the relevant societies or owners.

Registration and stamping

Copyright arises automatically, but registration of the film, script, songs and recordings with the Copyright Office provides prima facie evidence of the particulars entered, which is useful in disputes and due diligence. Our copyright registration service can prepare applications, and the evidence value of registration is discussed in our copyright guide.

Assignments and licences must be in writing and signed. Stamp duty depends on state law and on whether the instrument is treated as an agreement or as a transfer, and some states charge assignments of copyright differently from agreements; confirm the duty applicable where the document is signed before execution. Electronic signatures are valid, and a company signing should have its signatory’s authority on record.

Warranties, indemnities and insurance

A seller of film or music rights warrants that it owns the rights sold, that it has not granted them to anyone else, that all creators and performers have been contracted and paid, that no claim is pending, and that the work does not infringe or defame. Buyers rely on these warranties, backed by an indemnity and often by errors and omissions insurance, which covers claims of infringement, defamation and invasion of privacy arising from the film.

Sellers should limit warranties to what the chain of title supports and to the rights actually sold, and cap their liability where possible. Buyers should ask for the chain-of-title file, a clearance log for music and clips, and a legal review of the script for high-risk content such as biopics. Both should say how a claim is notified and defended.

Tax in outline

For GST, transferring or licensing copyright in films and music is ordinarily treated as a service, the rate turning on classification, with reverse charge applying where an individual author, composer, lyricist or artist supplies to a producer or music company, unless the individual has opted to pay tax. Tax is generally deducted at source on royalty: Section 194J applies a lower rate to film royalty — payments for selling, distributing or exhibiting a film — than to other royalty, and fees to film artists are commonly treated as professional fees. Payments to foreign owners fall under Section 195. The broader tax picture is set out in our licensing guide; confirm current rates with your chartered accountant.

When rights are disputed

Rights disputes in film and music often arrive just before release, when the stakes are highest: a writer claims the story was copied, a family objects to a biopic, a label says a song was used without licence, or a co-producer claims a share of a sale. Courts can grant interim injunctions stopping release, which is why documents, clearances and records of development matter so much.

A dispute is usually opened with a notice setting out the claim, and many are settled by payment and credit. Where they are not, copyright suits and commercial disputes over rights agreements go to the civil or commercial courts, generally after an attempt at pre-institution mediation unless urgent relief is sought, and agreements often provide for arbitration of contractual disputes. Taking a case to court or to an arbitrator is work for your advocate, whose fee is engaged and paid by you directly; our advocate directory can help you choose one, and our copyright infringement notice service prepares notices.

An example: from a novel to a film

A producer in Kolkata wants to adapt a Bengali novel into a film. The author is keen, but the producer has no money yet beyond development. We would draft an option agreement giving the producer eighteen months, with a paid extension of six months, to buy the film and series rights for a purchase price of a percentage of the final budget with a stated minimum and maximum, and an option fee credited against the price.

The rights acquired on exercise are listed: adaptation into films and series in all languages, the title, sequels and remakes, dubbing, trailers, and publication of the screenplay. The author keeps print, audiobook and stage rights. Credit reads “Based on the novel by” the author. The author confirms that the publishing contract does not give the publisher film rights, and the publisher signs a short letter agreeing. The screenwriter’s agreement assigns all drafts to the production company, and the composer and lyricists sign agreements that acknowledge their royalty entitlement for uses beyond cinema exhibition. When a platform later buys worldwide digital rights, the chain-of-title file is ready.

An example: a regional film’s songs and a remix

A Punjabi film’s producer sells the music rights to a label for a fixed sum before release: the sound recordings of six songs and their videos, worldwide, for the term of copyright, with the producer keeping the right to use the songs in the film, trailers and dubbed versions. The label promotes the songs on its channels, and the agreement prevents the label from claiming revenue on the producer’s own trailers.

Two years later, a DJ wants to release a remix of one song. The DJ needs a licence from the label for the sound recording and from the owner of the composition and lyrics — which, under the original agreements, is the producer, subject to the composer’s and lyricist’s royalty rights. The remix licence fixes a fee and a share of streaming revenue, credits the original creators, and requires the DJ to deliver the remix for approval before release. Because the original agreements were clear, the remix can be cleared in days rather than argued about for months.

Where rights deals go wrong

• Verbal permission from the author of the source story.
• Writers and composers paid in cash without signed assignments.
• Old templates that try to buy out the composer’s and lyricist’s royalty right.
• Unlicensed old songs and clips assumed to be too short to matter.
• “Digital rights” undefined, with overlapping sales.
• No duration or territory in an assignment of a film’s rights.
• Remake rights never acquired from the writer.
• Biopics made without life rights or legal review.
• Rights held by the wrong company at the time of sale.
• Delivery materials not budgeted, delaying payment.

Our fee and what you get

Our music and film rights agreement costs ₹7,999 and is ready in 3 – 7 days. The fee covers one agreement — an option, a writer, composer or label agreement, or a sale or licence of a rights bundle. For a full chain-of-title review of a finished film, a co-production, or several linked agreements, we look at the documents, work out what is required and confirm the full fee before any work begins.

Performer agreements, NDAs and copyright registrations are quoted separately. Litigation, injunctions and arbitration are handled by your advocate, whose fee is engaged and paid by you directly — we neither quote nor collect nor share it.