Amitabh Bachchan’s lawyer answers what happens to mimicry artistes after HC order restraining use of actor’s voice, images without permission

On Friday, Justice Navin Chawla said it is undisputed that Bachchan is a well-known personality and is likely to suffer an irreparable loss and disrepute if relief is not granted at this stage.

Naik told indianexpress.com that the basis of action was when the team discovered that the megastar’s attributes were being misused: from a fake video call, his pictures used for a “lottery and a scam” where people were being invited “on the strength of his photographs” to his domain names being misused for “commercial exploitation”.

As argued by advocate Harish Salve, who appeared for the actor, the suit was filed after it was seen that mobile application developers were conducting lotteries by unlawfully associating it with Kaun Banega Crorepati, and Big B’s name and image being used by book publishers, T-shirt vendors and other businesses.

Naik said the suit was against “eight known defendants and then the world at large.” “The cause of action was when we discovered that Mr Bachchan’s name, image was being utilised by a lot of people. That’s why we initiated the suit and took hybrid action… This is an absolute order, where the judge was prima facie convinced on Mr Salve’s arguments that there is misuse, and this must be injuncted. On that basis we got an order, an absolute order, without any carve outs, to not utilise his name, image, voice, his attributes etc,” Naik said.

There was confusion, however, on what the order means for mimicry artistes, who imitate the megastar professionally. When asked about this, Naik said, “This order is absolute. For example, you are a news reporter, this is fair dealing in terms of what you deal with Mr Bachchan or any celebrity. Fair use has to be determined by the court.

“Ultimately the court will decide what is fair and not fair. The order is absolute in its terms, there are no carve outs. Only Mr Bachchan can decide whether it is being misused or not and how he wants it to be utilised. There are no carve outs that mimicry will be allowed and therefore must be permitted. They can all go to Mr Bachchan and see what is the process to be followed,” he added.

 

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Earlier, Salve had pointed out that while some people were running a lottery using Bachchan’s name and the KBC logo, others were selling T-shirts with his image.

“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…it appears to be scam…There is no lottery…no one wins,” the advocate said. He added that there was also an Amitabh Bachchan video call facility, where the caller could speak to a person who sounded like the superstar.

Bachchan and his team of lawyers sought to protect his image arguing against the unlawful infringement of his personality and publicity rights. Through this, an individual can control the commercial use of their name, image and identity. After the order was passed, the HC also directed the telecom ministry to ensure all violated content flagged by Big B’s team is removed, and the violators are reported.