HC bars unauthorised use of actor’s likeness
The Delhi high court on Friday passed an interim order restraining unauthorised use of legendary Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan’s name, photograph, voice or any other trait exclusively identifiable with him by any individual for business promotions.
A single judge bench of justice Navin Chawla granted the interim ex-parte injunction on a lawsuit filed by the actor, seeking protection of his name, image, voice and personality attributes.
In his suit, the 80-year-old actor, who is the host of a popular TV game show Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC), alleged his name, image and voice were being “misused” by “mobile
application developers, and people conducting lottery by illegally associating with KBC, book publishers, T-shirt vendors and various other businesses”.
The suit – filed through advocates Ameet Naik and Pravin Anand – named nine individual defendants. Besides a permanent restraining order, Bachchan sought damages of ₹2 crore from the defendants. He also sought relief of injunction against or anonymous parties who may be exploiting his publicity rights.