Delhi HC restrains misuse of personality attributes of actor Anil Kapoor

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday restrained websites and other platforms from misusing the name, image, voice and other attributes of persona, including the "jhakaas" catchphrase, of actor Anil Kapoor for commercial gain. Justice Prathiba M Singh passed the ex-parte interim order on a lawsuit by the 67-year-old film star alleging unauthorised exploitation of his personality and celebrity rights for commercial use.

Advocate Pravin Anand, appearing for Kapoor, said several websites and platforms have been misusing the personality traits of the plaintiff through various activities. Kapoor's counsel referred to the unauthorised sale of merchandise, collection of fees by using his photograph as a motivational speaker, morphing his image in a derogatory manner, and selling pictures with forged autographs and the "jhakaas" catchphrase, GIF images and stickers, among others.

"Jhakaas", a Marathi slang meaning superb that was first used by the actor in the 1985 movie ‘Yudh, is exclusively associated with Anil Kapoor due to his unique way of delivering it, the court was told. The lawsuit sought protection of Kapoor's personality rights with respect to his name, voice, image, likeness, manner of speaking and gestures, among others. Justice Singh observed while there can be no doubt that free speech is protected, the same would be illegal when it "crosses the line" and results in tarnishing and jeopardising individual personality rights.

"Using the plaintiff's name, voice, dialogue, image in illegal manner, that too for commercial purposes, cannot be permitted. Court cannot turn a blind eye to such misuse of personality," Justice Singh said. "Defendants 1-16 are restrained from using in any manner the plaintiff Anil Kapoor's name, image, voice, likeliness or personality or any other attribute of his personality to create any merchandise, ringtones, or in any manner misuse the plaintiff's name, voice and other elements by using technological tools such as artificial intelligence, face morphing, GIFs for monetary gains or otherwise," ordered the court. The defendants included various entities including 'Simply Life India' which enables people to contact motivational speakers, 'VisionComputers' which provides his wallpapers as well as 'Giphy', an online database and search engine that allows users to search for and share GIFs, a type of image format that supports animated images, typically of short duration and limited resolution, and is widely used for internet graphics.

The court also restrained other unknown persons from disseminating the offending links. The court directed the authorities concerned to suspend and block the offending platforms. "Fame for a person comes with disadvantages and this case shows that reputation and fame can transcend into damage," it said. Such misuse can damage a celebrity's right to endorsement, which is source of livelihood, it said and added the plaintiff was able to make a prima facie case for interim relief at this stage. The court also noted that celebrities enjoy right to privacy and the new technological tools such as artificial intelligence make in possible for any user to misuse the attributes of one's personality.

"The court has no doubt in holding that the plaintiff's name, voice, persona etc deserve to be protected not only for plaintiff's own sake but also for the sake of his friends and family who would not like to see his image being misused," the court said. The plea, filed through law firms Anand and Anand, and Anand and Naik said Anil Kapoor was known worldwide because of his work in films, serials and web series in the last more than 30 years and no one is entitled to misappropriate or imitate any facet of his personality for commercial use without consent. The plea highlights that the plaintiff's "Jhakaas" is his signature style, which he has used on several occasions including in advertisements to describe products.

"The iconic 'Jhakaas' expression and the manner in which the Plaintiff delivers the same are closely associated with the Plaintiff and has become synonymous with his energetic and enthusiastic persona," the petition said. "Such is the distinctive character of the name that in the public perception, whenever the name of the Plaintiff, Mr. Anil Kapoor or the acronym 'AK' or sobriquets made popular through his films, like- 'Lakhan', 'Mr. India ', 'Majnu Bhai ' and 'Nayak ', are mentioned, they are immediately associated with the Plaintiff himself and no one else," it added. The lawsuit, which seeks Rs 2 crore as damages, asserts that only Kapoor has "control over the commercial utilization of his personality, name, signature, voice, image, likeness and other characteristics that are uniquely identifiable and associated" with him and no entity can utilise the same commercially in any manner whatsoever without his express authorisation