Veteran Bollywood actor Jackie Shroff filed a petition in the Delhi High Court on Tuesday, seeking to restrain multiple entities, including firms, social media channels, artificial intelligence (AI) apps, and GIF-making platforms, from using his name, voice, image, or any other attribute, including his lingo ‘Bhidu,’ without his explicit consent.
Justice Sanjeev Narula reviewed the case today and issued summonses to the defendants. The court scheduled further deliberations for tomorrow, May 15, specifically to address the matter of interim injunction.
During the proceedings, Advocate Pravin Anand, representing Shroff, highlighted instances of offensive memes and misuse of Shroff’s voice and images. Surprisingly, it was revealed that some people had even created pornographic material using Shroff’s likeness.
Anand clarified that Shroff’s aim is not to hinder parody or satire but to seek an injunction against merchandising and any defamatory or distorted use of his persona. In his plea to the High Court, Shroff seeks protection for his names Jackie Shroff, Jackie, Jaggu Dada, and Bhidu. He insists that his attributes must not be used without his permission on any platform.
Additionally,he also urged the Department of Technology and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) to remove all links and websites that break his personality rights. He further claimed that various social media companies, stores, handles, and AI tools are using his attributes without permission, profiting from such use while damaging his reputation.
Notably, platforms like Google-owned Tenor, another GIF-making company called Giphy, and AI platforms are included in his lawsuit.
“Further, on account of their inimitable nature, the Plaintiff’s name, voice, image, likeness, signature, mannerisms, gestures and other such elements of the Plaintiff’s persona also have a huge commercial value associated with them. Any third party found using any of the above stated elements of the Plaintiff’s persona is bound to cause confusion and deception amongst the general public as to affiliation with/ sponsorship by the Plaintiff,” Shroff argued in his suit, as quoted by Bar and Bench.
Shroff argued that if someone uses any part of his identity for business reasons without his permission, it should be stopped. This is not only because of the usual rules about publicity rights but also because it can damage his reputation, known as tarnishment.
Pravin Anand, Ameet Naik, Madhu Gadodia, Dhruv Anand, and Udita from Anand and Naik represented Jackie Shroff.