The Delhi high court on Monday said it would pass an order directing the takedown of links to the teaser of the proposed film “Kala Hiran: The Battle for Legacy”, said to be based on actor Salman Khan’s 1998 blackbuck poaching case, and the film producer Amit Jani’s interviews within 24 hours.
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Khan moved the high court seeking a stay on the film’s production, promotion and release. In his plea, he argued that the high court in December last year protected his personality rights by restraining unauthorised use of his persona. Khan added the protection also encompassed his right to a fair trial.
Khan said a poster of the film was released on May 29 despite the counter order indicating that the movie was being developed and was purportedly inspired by, or based on, the 1998 “blackbuck incident”. He added that the character depicted has an uncanny resemblance to him and the film, on the face of it, utilises his personality rights by using his likeness without his consent for commercial gain and is in contravention of the court’s December order.
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Justice Jyoti Singh, who saw the teaser in open court, said Jani was committing contempt of court by depicting sub judice events. She said even 24 hours of public circulation of the teaser could inflict significant damage on a person’s reputation. “What kind of contents are these? You seem to get emboldened by the fact that no order was passed last time. Your client [Jani] thinks he is above the law. He is getting worse day by day … Every minute it is in the public domain, it is harming the reputation of the plaintiff [Khan],” Justice Singh told Jani’s lawyer.
“You cannot do this even to a common man. It cannot get worse than this even for a common man. Reputation is built with great effort; once it is lost, it is lost.” Justice Singh asked Khan’s lawyer to prepare a list of all allegedly infringing links to enable her to pass take-down orders.
Jani’s lawyer submitted his client merely responded to the questions during interviews and the teaser neither named Khan nor used deepfake or AI technology. He added that there was no exclusive protection against depicting public events.
