New Delhi, Feb 21 (UNI) Delhi High Court today issued notice to Bollywood director Ram Gopal Varma on a petition filed by Kanungo Media Pvt Ltd seeking permanent injunction on release of Amitabh Bachchan-starred film 'Nishabd'.

After hearing preliminary arguments, Justice A K Sikri asked Varma, RGV Film Factory, Adlabs Films Ltd and Super Cassettees Ltd to file their replies to the allegations in the petition by March 23.

In a petition Kanungo Media Pvt Ltd of Director Dinanath Jawhar Kanungo alleged that Varma had infringed his intellectual property rights over the name and title of its own film 'Nisshabd' which had won many international awards.

The Central Board of Film Certification had cleared the name for the film in June 2005, said the petition.

The film has received the best feature film award at Osian's Cinefan Festival Asian Film in July 2005, second prize at International Film Festival, Bangladesh in March 2006 and 'Coup De Coeur Guimet Award' at Vesoul International Festival of Asian Award .

Nisshabd was produced with the financial aid under the scheme 'Fonds Sud Cinema' from the French government released in November 2002.

Kanungo has sought direction of the court to stop the release of the film, which is due for release this month.

UNI