The Delhi High Court on Monday issued an interim order to protect the personality rights of Bollywood actor and Rajya Sabha member Jaya Bachchan. The order prevents various entities from unauthorized use of its name, image or likeness.
Delhi High Court judge Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora said he would not immediately restrict the use of Bachchan’s images on film posters, noting that the copyright of such material rests with the film’s owner.
“How do you claim copyright in movie posters? Copyright applies to whoever owns the movie, it doesn’t even hurt you. You don’t even have any copyright. Leave it here. I’m not pleading. This is the poster. Leave the party here. We’ll hear it and see. I’m not convinced,” Justice Arora said.
Justice Arora ordered the issuance of blocking orders against websites found to be defaming Bachchan and ordered that website owners and domain name registrars (DNRs) be formally added as parties to the case.
The court also granted Bachchan liberty to file an amended claim within two days as it found several clerical and typographical errors in the original filing. The matter has now been adjourned to April 16 for further hearing.
“I will make an injunction… Make blocking orders with respect to the website. I will make directions that you create the website and the DNR as parties,” the judge said.
Allegations of abuse
The injunction was granted in a lawsuit filed by Bachchan, who sought protection of her rights of publicity and personality, alleging that her image and personality were being misused to sell merchandise and make illegal business profit.
Senior advocate Sandeep Sethi, representing Bachchan, argued that apart from using her likeness to sell merchandise, several entities were also creating AI-generated videos and sexually explicit material featuring her.
Sethi informed the court of specific instances of abuse, noting that the first defendant posted morphed images, the second defendant sold merchandise using her image, defendants four and five sold infringing products, and defendant seven, a YouTube channel, uploaded defamatory content about her.
The Delhi High Court recently extended similar protective orders to other prominent actors, including Jackie Shroff, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, Hrithik Roshan, Akkineni Nagarjuna and filmmaker Karan Johar.
In 2023, the court prevented the misuse of actor Anil Kapoor’s name, image, voice and his signature “jhakaas”, following a November 2022 precedent that similarly protected veteran actor Amitabh Bachchan’s personality and publicity rights.
