Big Plea: How Amitabh Bachchan’s voice, pictures are being misused and why court has intervened

Amitabh Bachchan was “the angry young man” of the ’70s and ‘80s, a moniker he earned because of his film Zanjeer. But now what has angered the superstar now and he has turned to the court of law?

Bachchan has moved Delhi High Court because of the misuse of his name, voice and image. According to senior advocate Harish Salve, who is representing the 80-year-old actor, the actor’s name, voice, and image were being used without his permission to promote products.

“I am just giving a flavour of what is going on. Someone is making T-shirts and started putting his face on them. Someone is selling his poster. Someone has gone and registered a domain name, amitabhbachchan.com. This is why we have come,” Salve said, according to a report on NDTV.

Why is Big B’s plea?

According to the lawyer, various fake Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC) lucky draws, “KBC Lottery Registration”, “Amitabh Bachchan Video Call” and scams were being run using the actor’s photographs without his permission. Some people were running a lottery using the actor’s name along with the KBC logo and others were selling T-shirts with his image on them, he said.

“This nonsense has been going on for a while… there is a lottery in Gujarat where the defendant has brazenly copied (the) logo of KBC where his photographs are all over it,” Salve said, according to a report in The Indian Express. He further added that the lottery appeared to be a scam and no one was winning anything.

The lawyer said that someone was running an “Amitabh Bachchan Video Call” business, where the actor’s photograph is being used. “When you call, his photograph shows up … there is a fake voice, someone who sounds like Amitabh Bachchan,” he told the court.

The video call is a mobile app, which can be downloaded on phones, the plea said. “Amitabh Bachchan is a fake video call app and can also do voice chatting but that too prank call. Amitabh Bachchan is one of the biggest superstars of Bollywood,” it said.

Salve also informed the court that some defendants registered domain names like amitabhbachchan.com and amitabhbachchan.in. “Nobody is entitled to do this,” the lawyer said.

The aspects of Bachchan’s personality which are protectable include his name, voice, image, photograph, likeness and unique style of dialogue, the plea said. His name carries “enormous goodwill and reputation” and is “exclusively associated” with him, it adds.

“The plaintiff has become a household name not only in India but also all over the world for more than the last 50 years. Such is the distinct character of the name that in the public perception, whenever the name of the plaintiff, Mr. Amitabh Bachchan is mentioned, it is immediately identified and related with him and no one else,” the plea contends, according to a report by The Indian Express.

The actor has sought an injunction order against the defendants, including a John Doe action, as they are unsure how many people are involved in this. He has also asked for a restraining order against other businesses which are violating his personality rights.

What has the court said?

The Delhi High Court has ruled in favour of the actor, saying that Bachchan’s name, voice and image cannot be used without his permission.

The single-judge bench of Justice Navin Chawla observed that the defendants, who are various individuals and entities, were violating Bachchan’s personality rights. He said that the defendants appeared to be using the “celebrity status of the actor without his authorisation” and the activities being complained of “bring disrepute” to Bachchan.

“The plaintiff is aggrieved by the defendants from unauthorizedly using his celebrity status to promote their goods and services without his permission or authorization,” the high court observed. “The defendants appear to be using his [Bachchan’s] status for promoting their own activities without his permission, wherein the plaintiff is likely to suffer grave loss and irreparable injury. In fact, some of the activities may also bring disrepute to the plaintiff.”

The court has instructed the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology to bring down all links and websites flagged in the plea which unlawfully infringe Bachchan’s publicity rights. It has asked telecom service providers to block access to all phone numbers that are used to circulate messages on WhatsApp where the messages amount to an infringement of Bachchan’s rights.

With inputs from agencies

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