Film makers of a Ugandan-British feature film, Imperial Blue that is a co-production between Ugandan and British film are intending to sue the national broadcaster Uganda Broadcasting Corporation.
The film has been legally registered and classified for distribution; however it is not yet publicly available in Uganda and will be premiered in the Century Cinemax, Acacia Mall tomorrow June 5.
According to a press release issued by Imperial Blue, the film makers have issued an intention to sue the national broadcaster Uganda Broadcasting Corporation for unlicensed broadcasting of the film.
“It was brought to our attention on Saturday 29th of May that our feature film, Imperial Blue was being screened illegally, without license or permission, by U24, a channel owned by UBC. Worse, they continued to screen it several times in the following days. UBC is the official national broadcaster of Uganda, which was set up by the state and is funded by the taxpayer,” stated the press release.
“We have issued an intention to sue for loss of earnings and emotional distress, via our legal representatives, and we await the response from UBC. We have calculated that the compromise to our sales strategy equates to losses of hundreds of millions of Ugandan shillings,” stated the press release.
The film was shot in Uganda in early 2017, with additional scenes filmed in the UK and India, later in 2017 but has taken five years to reach the Ugandan audience.