Mumbai court temporarily blocks game based on Salman’s Khan’s hit-and-run incident

PTI, Sep 7, 2021, 5:18 PM IST

Mumbai: Mumbai civil court has ordered for temporary restraint on access to an online mobile game titled ”Selmon Bhoi”, allegedly based on a hit-and-run incident involving Bollywood actor Salman Khan.

Civil court judge K M Jaiswal passed the order on Monday and a copy of it was made available on Tuesday.

The court restrained the makers of the game, Parody Studios Pvt Ltd and its directors, from disseminating, launching, re-launching and recreating the game or any other content relating to the actor.

The court also directed the makers to immediately take-down/ block/ disable access to the game from Google Play Store and all other platforms.

“Upon watching the game and its images, it prima facie matches with the identity of the plaintiff (Khan) and to the hit-and-run case connected to the plaintiff,” the court said.

It further said Khan had never given his consent for the game.

“When the plaintiff has not given his consent for developing of the game, which is very similar to his identity and the case against him, certainly his right to privacy is being deprived and his image is also being tarnished,” the order said.

The court added that the game developers used Khan’s identity and popularity for commercial gain.

Khan had filed an application in the court last month against the developers of the game, claiming that the name and images displayed in the game appeared to be his caricature version.

The application claimed that the game “Selmon Bhoi” is phonetically the same as Khan’s popular name amongst his fans, “Salman Bhai”.

“The game developers intentionally gained commercial advantage by exploiting the personality rights of our client without seeking our client’s consent,” said the actor’s application filed through law firm DSK Legal.

The court directed the developers to file their affidavit to Khan’s plea and posted the matter for further hearing on September 20.

The Bombay High Court in 2015 acquitted Khan of all charges in the 2002 hit-and-run case.