Singer Kumar Sanu Moves Delhi High Court Seeking Protection Of His Personality Rights, Hearing On Monday

Indian playback singer, Kumar Sanu Bhattacharjee, has filed a suit before the Delhi High Court seeking protection of his personality rights.

The matter will be heard on Monday by Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora.

Sanu has sought protection of his personality or publicity rights, including his name, voice, vocal style and technique, vocal arrangements and interpretations, mannerism and manner of singing, image, caricature, photographs, likeness, signature and various other attributes against unauthorised use by third-parties.

The suit also relates to the alleged violation of the singer's moral rights in his performances conferred upon him by virtue of section 38B of the Copyright Act, 1957.

Sanu is aggrieved by various GIFs, sound and video recordings containing his performances and voice which bring disrepute to him and makes him the subject of “unsavoury humour,” thereby violating his moral rights in his performances.

The singer is also aggrieved by content made using artificial intelligence to clone his voice, vocal style and technique, vocal arrangements and interpretations, manner of singing and morphing his face, including making of merchandise.

“Such merchandise and audios/videos of the Plaintiff generate revenues for the Defendants, as they are uploaded and streamed on social networking websites including but not limited to Facebook, Instagram and Youtube which generates revenue based on the number of clicks or views to a particular image/ video,” the suit states.

Apart from named defendants, the suit has also been filed against john does- unknown individuals.

The singer states that the acts of the Defendants constitute infringement of his Personality or Publicity Rights and also amount to an attempt at false endorsements and passing off.

The suit has been filed through Advocates Shikha Sachdeva and Sana Raees Khan.

On Friday, Justice Arora protected the personality rights of journalist Sudhir Chaudhary, who had sought relief regarding circulation of allegedly misleading and AI generated videos against him on social media.

Recently, coordinate benches have passed orders protecting the personality rights of “The Art of Living” foundation founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Telugu actor Nagarjuna, Bollywood actors Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan and film producer Karan Johar.

Title: KUMAR SANU BHA TTACHARJEE v. JAMMABLE LIMITED & ORS