Amitabh Bachchan’s name, image, voice and personality cannot be used without his permission, lawyers explain the implications of the new HC order- Exclusive – Times of India

ETimes spoke to Ameet Naik and Madhu Gadodia of Anand and Naik, a reputed law firm in Mumbai, who also represent Amitabh Bachchan. Ameet Naik, Joint Managing Partner of Anand and Naik stated, “This landmark verdict will injuct any person from using the name, image, voice and other personality attributes of Mr. Bachchan without his consent and authorization by any means, physical or digital. The Indian jurisprudence will finally develop and evolve on personality rights and Mr Amitabh Bachchan is the right personality to set this trend.”

He further explained, “We are pleased that the Delhi High Court has presented this landmark verdict and am grateful to Mr Salve and Mr Praveen Anand for this trend setting order which will help talent in our country to protect their personality rights”.

Madhu Gadodia, Ameet’s partner in the firm explained, “The lookalikes are fine. They can’t change their face. The problem is when people use Mr Bachchan’s image, voice or his name and benefit from that.”

What about quoting or referencing Amitabh Bachchan’s iconic movie dialogues in social media or print? Madhu explained Mr Bachchan doesn’t own the dialogues. She said, “Dialogues are owned by the producer. Amitabh Bachchan owns his personality. That can’t be used without consent. Somebody used Mr Bachchan’s image for a KBC lottery. People are selling t-shirts with Bachchan’s pictures. So, all these things are not permissible.”

Explaining the kind of commerce that won’t be allowed Madhu said, “There are some mobile apps that say ‘You can do a call with Mr Bachchan’. Unless, Mr Bachchan has consented it, one cannot promote it as his voice. If someone’s voice is like Amitabh Bachchan’s then that’s a different thing. But you cannot say that you’re talking to Mr Bachchan. If you are using his name and associating your voice with it, then it’s a problem. It is written on these apps that these are prank calls. But it is written as you can talk to Mr. Bachchan. They have used his photo and there are options of voice call and voice chat with Bachchan. These are not permissible. You can’t use his name, photo, voice without his permission.”

Remarking that this is a welcome and trendsetting judgement, Madhu said, “This is a first of its kind where he has taken a John Doe against the world at large. People have taken action against specific infringements. But nobody has done it at such a big level. Not anyone in Hollywood. It is the first of its kind because the order is very wide in its ambit and covers not only the known defendants but John Doe. And protects personality rights which is pathbreaking order.”