Anil Kapoor's personality rights: HC restrains use of his name, image and voice for commercial gain

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday restrained social media channels, e-commerce websites and people at large from infringing on the personality and publicity rights of actor Anil Kapoor. 

The Mr India actor had moved the high court seeking protection of his name, voice, signature, and image rights for monetary gains without his consent. 

A single judge bench of Justice Prathiba Singh said that fame for a person can come with its own disadvantages and said Kapoor’s case shows that reputation and fame can transcend into damage for a person. 

The court said while there can be no doubt that free speech about a well-known person is protected in the form of write-ups, parody, satires, criticism etc., which is genuine, when the same crosses the line and results in tarnishment, blackening or jeopardising the individual’s personality and elements associated with the individual, it is illegal. 

“Using a person’s name, voice, dialogue, and image in an illegal manner that too for commercial purposes cannot be permitted. The celebrity’s right of endorsement could in fact be a major source of livelihood for the celebrity. Any form of misuse or commercial use of a celebrity name, voice, persona, or likeness has been shunned by SC in the seminal judgment called the Auto Shankar case,” the HC noted. 

Justice Prathiba M Singh passed the order restraining anyone from using Anil Kapoor's name, likeness, voice or any aspect of his persona to create merchandise, ringtones, etc. 

The court also barred the use of artificial intelligence tools to morph his image as well as the use of his image in GIFs for monetary gains or commercial purposes where such activities are likely to violate Kapoor's rights. 

The court further ruled that domains such as http://Anilkapoor.com be immediately suspended and blocked. 

“The creation of ringtone and GIF images for commercial gains is also complete misuse. Under these circumstances court has no doubt in holding that the plaintiff’s (Kapoor) name, likeness, image, and persona deserves to be protected not only for his own sake but also for the sake of his family and friends who would not like to see his image, name and other elements misused especially for such tarnishing and negative use,” Justice Singh said. 

While arguing the matter, Kapoor’s counsel Pravin Anand submitted that the expression “jhakaas”, a Marathi slang, was popularised by the actor in Hindi films and as per press reports how he expresses the word is exclusively used by him. 

Anand also mentioned the November 2022 interim order passed by the HC in actor Amitabh Bachchan’s lawsuit where the court restrained several persons from violating Bachchan’s “publicity rights” as a celebrity. 

Speaking about the case, Safir Anand, Joint managing partner, Anand & Naik, said: “The importance of protecting celebrity rights or the rights associated with a celebrity owing to their well-known status has been growing in India. As India is a common law country, personality rights and celebrity status of famous personalities are also protected under the Indian law of torts as well as passing off under the trademarks law. Interestingly, the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, also to a certain extent brings under its purview false endorsements in the name of celebrities, being considered as misleading advertisements.” 

"This order in favour of Anil Kapoor is a welcome move in recognising and controlling unlawful exploitation of the uniqueness and persona developed and loved by fans of the celebrities the world over," Anand added. 

 

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