MUMBAI — Kangana Ranaut‘s upcoming film Queen Forever has won a crucial legal breather after the Bombay High Court on Wednesday refused to halt the project, rejecting Phantom Studios’ plea for an interim injunction against JioStar. The Kangana Ranaut starrer has been at the centre of a bitter Rs 250 crore legal battle, with Phantom Studios claiming the film is an unauthorised sequel to the 2014 blockbuster Queen.
Justice Sandeep Marne declined to grant interim relief to Phantom Studios, which had asked the court to temporarily restrain JioStar India from producing, releasing or promoting Queen Forever — or any sequel or adaptation of Queen — without its written permission until the main case is decided. For Kangana Ranaut, the ruling removes an immediate threat hanging over one of her most high-profile upcoming projects.
Kangana Ranaut’s Queen Forever: what the Bombay High Court decided
The Bombay High Court’s decision, taken on October 14, 2026, concerns only Phantom Studios’ request for temporary relief — the underlying lawsuit remains a separate matter that will be heard on its merits. But in practical terms, the ruling is a significant win for Kangana Ranaut and JioStar, allowing production and promotional work on Queen Forever to continue without a court-imposed freeze.
According to a report by Bar and Bench, Justice Marne refused interim relief after hearing arguments from both sides. Phantom Studios had argued that Queen Forever is an unauthorised sequel to the original film and that any sequel, prequel or adaptation would require its consent under the agreements between the parties. The court was not persuaded to stop the film at this stage.
JioStar has denied Phantom Studios’ allegations outright, maintaining that Queen Forever is an independent production rather than a continuation of the original film. The distinction matters enormously: if the film is genuinely a standalone work, Phantom’s sequel-rights claim collapses; if it is a Queen sequel in all but name, the studio’s Rs 250 crore lawsuit gains serious teeth.
The Rs 250 crore lawsuit behind the Kangana Ranaut film
Phantom Studios first filed a Rs 250 crore lawsuit against JioStar India, alleging violations of a 2012 co-production agreement and a 2022 deed of novation. According to the studio, both parties — with JioStar formerly operating as Viacom18 — jointly own equal rights to the intellectual property and derivative works associated with Queen.
Phantom has argued that its agreements entitle both parties to a 50% share in the rights to any future sequel or prequel, and that it has not approved any sequel, adaptation or derivative work based on the 2014 film. The lawsuit, filed through the legal firm Rashmikant and Partners, seeks to prevent the film’s release and claims Rs 250 crore in damages.
The dispute comes months after the announcement of Kangana Ranaut’s film Queen 2, which reignited industry chatter about the future of the beloved franchise. Queen (2014), directed by Vikas Bahl and starring Kangana Ranaut as the iconic Rani Mehra, was both a critical darling and a commercial success — and it won Kangana Ranaut a National Film Award for Best Actress. Any project carrying the Queen name therefore arrives with enormous expectations and, evidently, enormous legal stakes.
Kangana Ranaut and the Queen legacy
For Kangana Ranaut, Queen remains the defining film of her career. Her portrayal of Rani — the jilted Delhi bride who embarks on a solo honeymoon to Paris and Amsterdam and discovers herself along the way — became a cultural touchstone, and the film’s dialogues and moments are still quoted across India more than a decade later.
Kangana Ranaut has built her brand on fierce independence, both on and off screen, and her recent years have blended cinema with politics — she is also a sitting Member of Parliament. A legal cloud over Queen Forever would have been an unwelcome distraction for Kangana Ranaut at a time when the project is being positioned as a major event film.
The actress has not publicly commented on Wednesday’s ruling so far, but industry watchers say the High Court’s refusal to grant an injunction is exactly the outcome the Queen Forever team was hoping for: it keeps the film’s timeline intact while the larger legal fight plays out in the background.
Trade watchers note that nostalgia-driven sequels are among Bollywood’s safest bets right now, which is why the Kangana Ranaut film’s legal troubles drew such intense scrutiny — a delayed or blocked Queen Forever would have been a costly setback for everyone involved, from the studio to the star herself.
What Phantom Studios wanted — and why the court said no for now
In its interim application, Phantom Studios asked the court to temporarily restrain JioStar and the other defendants from producing, releasing or promoting any sequel or adaptation of Queen, including Queen Forever, without its written permission until the case is decided. Courts grant such interim injunctions only when the applicant shows a strong prima facie case, a balance of convenience in its favour, and the risk of irreparable harm — a high bar in commercial disputes.
Justice Marne’s refusal to grant the injunction suggests the court was not convinced, at this preliminary stage, that Phantom had cleared that bar. Legal experts note that interim relief in intellectual-property battles is notoriously hard to obtain when the defendant presents a credible case that the work is original — which is precisely JioStar’s position.
That said, the denial of interim relief is not a verdict on the merits. Phantom’s Rs 250 crore lawsuit will proceed, and if the studio ultimately proves that Queen Forever infringes its rights, the consequences for the film could still be severe — including, potentially, a bar on release and massive damages.
What happens next for Kangana Ranaut’s Queen Forever
With the immediate legal threat lifted, all eyes are now on how JioStar and Kangana Ranaut position Queen Forever in the coming months. The project will need to navigate not just the ongoing lawsuit but also the towering legacy of the original Queen — a film that fans guard fiercely.
The case also spotlights a broader trend in Bollywood: as studios mine beloved intellectual properties for sequels and spin-offs, ownership of derivative rights is becoming one of the industry’s most fiercely contested battlegrounds. The Queen Forever dispute — pitting a Rs 250 crore damages claim against a claim of independent creation — could set important precedents for how such fights are resolved.
Whether Queen Forever ultimately reaches theatres as planned will depend on how quickly the main lawsuit moves through the courts. For now, though, the momentum is firmly with Kangana Ranaut and JioStar — and the Queen franchise lives to fight another day.
For Kangana Ranaut, Wednesday’s ruling is a reason to breathe easier. The Queen saga, it seems, is far from over — both on screen and in court.
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Source: ABP Live
Photos: Bollywood Hungama and a Flickr photographer via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0 / CC BY 2.0).
