The producer of Kala Hiran has taken Salman Khan's personality-rights order to the Supreme Court
Delhi High Court told him to pull the teaser. He says the court never named the infringement.
Amit Jani, who is producing Kala Hiran: The Battle For Legacy, moved the Supreme Court on Wednesday against a Delhi High Court order that took down his film's teaser. Justice Jyoti Singh's interim order on 27 July told the makers to stop uploading, hosting or promoting the teaser and related material across social media, streaming, television and print. The court said the campaign prima facie infringed Salman Khan's personality rights and risked irreparable harm to his reputation.
The teaser went out on 17 July. Khan's lawyers say it commercially used his identity without consent: a character called Ayan Khan, a courtroom sequence about a superstar on trial for killing a blackbuck, references to Dabangg and Sikandar, and distinctive accessories, including a bracelet and ear studs. Khan has said he is not claiming a monopoly over the 1998 case or the public conversation around it. He is claiming the right to stop someone else from selling tickets off his face and his mannerisms. He already has a wider personality-rights suit. The High Court gave him an interim shield on 11 December 2025 against unauthorised use of his name, image and likeness on social media and e-commerce sites.
Jani's petition, as reported by ANI, says the High Court restrained the teaser without identifying the precise use that appropriated Khan's persona. Speaking to PTI, Jani said he respects the High Court but believes the 27 July decision was unjust, that Salman Khan does not appear in the teaser or the film, and that he wants the teaser and interviews restored.
Personality rights have become the fastest way for a Hindi film star to shut down a lookalike, a deepfake, or a film that gets too close to a real case. I am not sure we have decided what too close means. If a courtroom teaser can be pulled because the accused looks like Salman and the animal is a blackbuck, then a large part of the 1990s tabloid record is now a licensing problem. Perhaps that is the point. Perhaps it is also how you stop a producer from free-riding on a star who never signed the film.
The Supreme Court has to decide whether to stay the takedown while it hears the appeal. Until it does, the teaser stays down, and the argument about whether Kala Hiran is a film or a personality-rights workaround stays in the filings.