CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has ordered an interim injunction restraining the commercial use of actor Kamal Haasan's name and photographs without his consent.
Stating that a Chennai-based firm, Neeye Vidai, has been selling T-shirts and shirts printed with his images, name, and identifiers, including the title "Ulaga Nayagan" and his famous movie dialogues, without his permission, actor Kamal Haasan has filed a suit for personality rights before the Madras High Court.
When the case came up for hearing before Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy, senior counsel Satish Parasaran and counsel Vijayan Subramanian appearing for Kamal Haasan, submitted that, to protect his personality rights, the Court should restrain not only Neeye Vidai, but also any other organisation from using his name, photographs, titles, and dialogues without his consent.
Accepting the submissions, the Judge granted an interim injunction restraining the unauthorised commercial use of Kamal Haasan's name and photographs. The Court also directed Neeye Vidai to file their counter affidavit and adjourned the matter to February.
At the same time, the Judge clarified in his order that there is no restriction on the use of Kamal Haasan's image in cartoons and directed Kamal Haasan's counsel to publish advertisements regarding this order in Tamil and English newspapers.