Amitabh Bachchan Moves Court to Seek ‘Personality Rights’ – What Does it Mean?

Amitabh Bachchan moved court to seek personality rights and the court granted interim relief to him in the case. Do you know what are personality rights and how to safeguard them? Here's what you should know.

Published: November 25, 2022 12:11 PM IST

By India.com Entertainment Desk | Edited by Vineeta Kumar

Amitabh Bachchan Moves Court to Seek 'Personality Rights' - What Does it Mean
Amitabh Bachchan Moves Court to Seek 'Personality Rights' - What Does it Mean (Photo: Instagram/Amitabh Bachchan)

Amitabh Bachchan personality rights: Actor Amitabh Bachchan, represented by Senior Advocate Harish Salve, Praveen Anand, Ameet Naik, and Madhu Dagodia, moved Delhi High Court seeking personality and publicity rights. The court on Friday passed an interim order to restrain people from using his personality for their own gain and publicity of their products and business.

The veteran Bollywood actor decided to reach court after realising that many people are taking advantage of his status, popularity, and personality to run illegal businesses and for their personal gains. As reported by Bar and Bench, Salve told the court that a lucky draw was organised and publicised in Bachchan’s name to attract applications from common people. He added that illegal lotteries are being organised by associating Bachchan’s name and his association with the game show Kaun Banega Crorepati.

WHY DID AMITABH BACHCHAN MOVE COURT SEEKING PERSONALITY RIGHTS?

All India sim card WhatsApp lucky draw. Lucky draw holder name — Amitabh Bachchan and Mukesh Ambani,” he told the Court, adding, ” 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…”

The megastar has also sought a restraining order against book publishers, T-shirt vendors, and other private businesses that use Bachchan’s characteristics, photos, and voice to dupe people into downloading their apps, using their products, and operating websites.

In their complaint to the court, Bachchan described one of the incidents that prompted him to file for the suit. The complaint said, “Defendant No.3 is a publisher, Manoj Publications, which has been found commercially dealing in a General Knowledge quiz book on various e-commerce platforms for aspirants who wish to participate in the television quiz show ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’ (a popular TV show hosted by the Plaintiff). Defendant No. 4 is an entity M/s Swag Shirts, which has been found dealing in T-shirts through its website https://www.swagshirts99.com/, which prominently bears photographs of Plaintiff on clothing items (sic).”

WHAT ARE PERSONALITY RIGHTS?

Personality rights largely mean the right of a person to his or her personality including his characteristics, and the way he looks, speaks, walks, and lives. This is more important in the case of celebrities because people tend to use their names, and other characteristics for their personal gain and sometimes, for illegal activities in which case it can bring an unfathomable disrepute to the celebrity and his or her family. This can also impact and influence the brand endorsements and the sales officially done in the celeb’s name by advertisers.

When a person seeks his or her personality rights, the court grants an order against using his or her name, photos, and all the characteristics at large by anyone without permission.

WHAT THE COURT SAID IN AMITABH BACHCHAN’S CASE?

As reported by Bar and Bench, Justice Navin Chawla granted an interim order restraining persons at large from infringing Bachchan’s personality and publicity rights.

He said in the order: “It cannot seriously be disputed that the plaintiff is a well-known personality and is also represented in various advertisements. The plaintiff is aggrieved by the defendants using his celebrity status to promote their own goods and services without his permission or authorization. Having considered the plaint, I am of the opinion that a prima facie case is made out and balance of convenience also lies in his favour (sic).”

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