Highlights:
The legal battle over a controversial film inspired by Salman Khan’s 1998 blackbuck poaching case has escalated to India’s Supreme Court.
Producer Amit Jani has challenged a Delhi High Court order directing the removal of promotional material and the teaser for Kala Hiran: The Battle for Legacy, according to ANI.
Khan had approached the Delhi High Court seeking to stop the film, arguing that the project uses his identity and public persona without his permission and could harm his reputation. His legal team has maintained that filmmakers cannot commercially exploit an actor’s life and identity without consent.
Jani’s Supreme Court appeal takes a broader position: He argues that granting celebrities sweeping personality-rights protections could allow public figures to suppress films, journalism and artistic portrayals of events already in the public domain.
The appeal warns that using personality rights in this way could create a “chilling effect” on independent filmmaking and historical storytelling.
The controversy has also affected the film’s cast. Actor Sonu Mishra recently withdrew from the project, alleging that the film was intended to tarnish the image of a senior actor.
At the heart of the case is a question that extends beyond Salman Khan: How far can a celebrity go to control the use of their identity when filmmakers are dramatizing events that have already become part of the public record?
The Supreme Court’s response could have implications for India’s growing debate over celebrity personality rights—and for filmmakers seeking to tell stories involving some of the country’s most recognizable public figures.
Actor Farhan Akhtar and his sister Zoya Akhtar, director of the new Indian Bollywood Hindi film “Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara”, pose for a photo in Mumbai on July 15, 2011. Getty Images
