Delhi High Court orders takedown of Kala Hiran teaser after Salman Khan files case

The court, therefore, directed that links, including the teaser, be taken down within 24 hours, failing which the platforms on which the same were posted would be directed to remove the content.

“In my view, prima facie, the cumulative narrative from the impugned teaser and the posts is that proposed Defendants have launched a promotional campaign/strategy to commercially exploit Plaintiff’s personality rights and public persona, without his consent or authorisation, to generate commercial interest in the film and attract viewers and are thus infringing Plaintiff’s personality and publicity rights. The teaser refers to incidents and characters, which are part of the ongoing appeals in different Courts and the depositions of the witnesses is touching upon several aspects of contested evidence,” the order added.

Senior counsel Ravi Prakash and advocates Nizamuddin Pasha, Sidharth Kaushik, Astu Khandelwal and Charu Sharma appeared for the actor alongside advocates Parag Khandhar, Chandrima Mitra, Krishan Kumar, Tapan Radkar and Zara Dhanbhoora

The ruling ordered X (formerly Twitter), Meta Platforms, Inc. and Google LLC to take down the URLs mentioned in case and said, “If the uploaders do not take them down within the timeline granted by the Court. Necessary action shall be taken within 24 hours on receipt of information to this effect by the Plaintiff.”

Background

The blackbuck poaching case started in 1998 when Salman Khan, along with a few other celebrities, was accused of killing the endangered animal in Jodhpur, Rajasthan, during the shoot of Hum Saath Saath Hain. At the time, the BIshnoi community filed a complaint against the actor. Salman was first arrested in 1998, but was granted bail later. 20 years later, a trial court sentenced him to five years’ imprisonment. He was later granted bail by a Sessions Court. In 2022, Rajasthan High Court allowed the transfer petition of the case.

The actor in December 2025 sought a permanent injunction from Delhi High Court to protect his personality and public rights against alleged misappropriation and exploitation. In his plea, he attributed the misuse of his name, photograph, stills, movies by morphing and by using Artificial Intelligence to create videos, images, audio clips for commercial or personal gain without authorisation or consent of the actor.

The actor claimed these unlawful activities violated his personality rights, copyrights, trademarks and may tarnish and dupe his fans and parties with which the celebrity has entered into contracts.

To buttress his claim, the suit has attached screenshots of memes, GIFs and videos, “infringing” on the actor’s personality rights.