Chennai, 12 Jan 

The Madras High Court on Monday temporarily restrained the use of actor Kamal Haasan's name and photographs for commercial purposes.

Haasan filed a civil suit in the court stating that a Chennai-based firm named 'Neeye Vidai' has been selling T-shirts and shirts by utilising his photograph, name, the title 'Ulaganayagan', and his famous dialogues without obtaining prior permission.

When the matter came up before Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy, Senior Counsel Satish Parasaran and Advocate Vijayan Subramanian, representing the actor, argued for the protection of personality rights and requested a prohibition against any entity using his name, image, titles, or dialogues without consent.

Accepting these submissions, the judge granted an interim injunction against the unauthorised commercial exploitation of Haasan's name and likeness.

The court further directed 'Neeye Vidai' to file a counter-affidavit and adjourned the proceedings to February.

Notably, the judge clarified in the order that no restriction applies to the use of the actor’s image in cartoons.

Since the plea sought to prevent any unauthorised third party from using his name or photograph, the court instructed the plaintiff to publish advertisements regarding this judicial order in both Tamil and English newspapers.