Days after the Bombay High Court granted ad-interim relief to actor-politician Shatrughan Sinha by restraining certain websites, social media accounts, AI-linked entities, and others from misusing and exploiting his personality rights, his lawyer explains what the order entails and why it was necessary.

“Various forms of illegal exploitation of his persona were being done for commercial gain. This included merchandise being sold on online platforms without his permission, such as mugs, fridge magnets, etc. People were making money out of it.”

Hiren Kamod, counsel and IP expert, Bombay HC, tells us. He adds, “There were a lot of fake profiles in his name. The third infringement was distorting his pictures to make GIFs and memes. There was also pornographic material on which his face was morphed. We wanted to curtail this rampant usage.”

However, this order does not stop comics from mimicking Shatrughan and his iconic dialogue, ‘Khamosh’. Kamod explains, “If Sunil Grover or any comedian wants to imitate him, there can’t be any injunction against them; there is no commercial exploitation. What you can’t do is sell any product with the actor’s name or mannerisms like ‘Khamosh’. None of the personality rights protection orders can stop any actors from impersonating/mimicking artistes.”