New Delhi: Veteran Bollywood Actor Jackie Shroff on Tuesday filed a petition in the Delhi high court, seeking protection for his name, likeness, and using his nickname ‘Bhidu’ without authorisation.
In his plea, the actor has sought the protection of the names “Jackie Shroff”, “Jackie”, “Jaggu Dada” as well as “Bhidu”.
The actor’s plea stated that his attributes cannot be used without his authorisation on any platform. He also requested that the Department of Technology and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) be instructed to remove all links and websites that unlawfully violate his personality rights.
Advocate Pravin Anand, who represented Shroff, told the court that the actor’s images have been used in offensive memes, and his voice has also been misappropriated for similar purposes in certain cases. He objected to the misuse of his personality through sale of merchandise, ringtones, wallpapers, insulting memes and GIFs and also the use of artificial intelligence, Telegraph reported.
The actor’s case is scheduled for hearing on Wednesday. Justice Sanjeev Narula issued summons to the entities on the lawsuit and listed the matter for further consideration.
It is pertinent to mention here that last year, another Bollywood actor Anil Kapoor had also approached the court to protect his personality rights. He won the case in January this year and his name, voice, image, likeness, manner of speaking, gestures, and even the catchphrase ‘jhakaas’ are now protected.
Prior to that Amitabh Bachhan had also taken the legal way to protect his personality rights.