Hyderabad court restrains entities from using actor Chiranjeevi's name, photo

Chiranjeevi

A city court in an interim order has restrained various entities from using actor Chiranjeevi's name, image, voice for commercial purposes without permission.

Chiranjeevi had approached the City Civil Court, seeking an injunction restraining the over 30 defendants like digital media platforms, clothing companies, and other platforms, from using his image and name and titles associated with him and his personality.

The petition sought to protect his personality rights pertaining to his name, voice, image, any other attribute which is exclusively identifiable with him for any commercial and/or personal gain and/or otherwise by exploiting them in any manner whatsoever without his consent.

The court noted that Chiranjeevi is one of the most recognisable faces in Telugu film industry as well as southern film industry.

It said the actor's name as well as various titles associated with him, such as megastar, Chiranjeevi, Boss, Annayya, Chiru and megastar Chiru, and his voice and image and the other attributes that can be used to identify him are part of his personality as a film actor and artist.

"It is his USP and is well recognised in the general public", it said.

The court in an interim order last month restrained the defendants from further infringing Chiranjeevi's personality and publicity rights by utilising in any manner directly or indirectly.

The court posted the matter to October 27.

Chiranjeevi's counsel had argued that the defendants have been using his client's images as well as his stills from various films and the various names associated with him such as megastar, gang leader etc, on various merchandise such as T-shirts, Wall-posters and so on and selling them in the open market through online portals as well as physical retail shops without the permission of the petitioner.

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Further, the actor's image has been used to create photographs and videographs and memes using Artificial Intelligence Technology. This misuse of the personality of the actor has caused him severe social and economic harm, the counsel stated.

The defendants have been using his image to create memes and images which create an impression that he is associated with various merchandise as well as various ideas, which adversely affect the prestige and his good name in society, the counsel added.