Kamal Haasan moves Madras High Court to protect his personality rights

Actor Kamal Haasan has filed a John Doe case (a suit filed against unknown persons/entities) before the Madras High Court to protect his personality rights and prevent commercial exploitation of his name, initials, portraits, pictures or other attributes relating to his personality without his express consent.

Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy is expected to hear the actor’s case and plea for interim relief on Monday, January 12, 2026. The 71-year-old actor told the court in his case that he has been in the film industry since his childhood and has created a niche for himself thanks to his expertise in various arts.

Citing a specific instance where a Chennai-based firm called ‘Neeye Vidai’ sold t-shirts and shirts bearing his portraits, name, initials, title ‘Ulaganayagan’ and famous dialogues from his films without his consent, the actor sought injunction against the firm as well as all other unknown entities engaging in such acts.

In his main suit, the actor had sought a permanent injunction against ‘Neeye Vidai’ as well as John Doe (a name used for unknown entities) and their partners, agents, officers, affiliates, holding companies, assignees, assignees, representatives, group companies, subscribers, employees and other such persons.

He asked the court to restrain them from violating his personality rights by directly or indirectly using, using, exploiting or misusing the name ‘Kamal Haasan’, the abbreviation ‘KH’, his image or likeness or any other attributes identifiable solely with his personality.

The actor argued that no one will be allowed to exploit his persona without permission for commercial or personal gains in any way, including the use of artificial intelligence (AI), generative artificial intelligence, machine learning, deepfakes, face swapping and other new technologies.

Apart from the main prayer for permanent relief in his case, the actor also filed four applications seeking interim relief of a similar nature. He insisted that no one will be allowed to create, share or disseminate products (such as clothing, coffee mugs and posters) or content (images/videos) that violate personal rights.

Stating that the unauthorized use of their pictures and names in these products gives people the wrong impression as if they approve of them, the actor submitted a copy of some of the products to the court in order to prove how his personal rights were violated by the Chennai-based company.