Karan Johar gets interim relief from court over ‘unlawful’ use of his name in film title

A month after the Delhi High Court passed an order protecting the personality rights of actor Jackie Shroff, producer-director Karan Johar got a similar relief from the Bombay High Court. The court on Thursday gave Johar an interim relief in a case he filed against the makers of a movie, claiming that they have unlawfully used his name in the title. The court order will prevent the scheduled release of the movie on Friday, June 14. 

Johar approached the court on Wednesday with a plea to not allow the makers of the movie titled "Shadi ke director Karan aur Johar" release the film. He had appealed the court to restrain the release of the film on any medium until his name was removed from its title as well as from the content of the film, including the publicity material. 

Citing Johar’s celebrity status, his advocate Zal Andhayarujina said in the plea that the ace filmmaker is aggrieved by the unlawful and unauthorised use of his name in the film. "The trailers indicate that the subject film is about individuals having the name 'Karan' and 'Johar' who collaborate to become directors and are shooting a Bollywood film. Such premise of the subject film further makes it evident that the Defendants are using the personality of the Plaintiff," he further said. 

He also said that his client's brand was being used by the filmmakers with malafide intent to commercialise. Giving several examples from past cases, Andhayarujina argued that his client's personality rights are duly protected by the law. 

Nothing that the defendants' representative had not showed up for the hearing, Justice RI Chagla agreed that Johar did have the personality rights and that the said movie makes unlawful use of that. He also said that the filmmakers have violated not just personality rights of Johar but also his right to publicity and right to privacy. 

The next hearing of the case is on July 10. The court has prohibited the filmmakers from making use of Johar's name or attributes in their content during the interim. 

Last month, Jackie Shroff approached the Delhi High Court to protect the misuse of mannerisms, especially the term 'bhidu'. The court acknowledged his rights and granted legal protection to his name, image, voice, likeness, and other traits. News anchor Rajat Sharma on June 10 got an order on the same lines restricting the use of his likeliness or that of his show "Aap Ki Adalat" even for satire. Anil Kapoor and Amitabh Bachchan have, in the past, successfully got court rulings to restrict use of their image, voice or likeliness by artificial intelligence and on merchandise.