Delhi High Court has passed an interim injunction against T-Series from using the word “Aashiqui” in any new film title. The orders have come from a suit filed by filmmaker Mukesh Bhatt’s Vishesh Films on grounds of trademark infringement against T-Series’ Super Cassettes Industries Limited.
The bone of contention began when both Vishesh Films and T-Series announced the production of the third franchise of their successful ‘Aashiqui’ films. While ‘Aashiqui’ and ‘Aashiqui 2‘ were huge box office successes jointly produced by Mukesh Bhatt and T-Series, a third film in the same franchise had been in the discussions with a tentative title of ‘Aashiqui 3’, which would supposedly have leading names like Anurag Basu directing it, with Kartik Aaryan in the lead and Pritam Chakraborty providing the music. However, things began to worsen when T-Series announced its new film titled ‘Tu Hi Aashiqui’ with the same director-actor-music director that had been assigned to ‘Aashiqui 3.’ This announcement engaged Mukesh Bhatt in filing a suit on grounds that T-Series was trying to hijack the franchise with a title that could easily mislead the audience into thinking that ‘Tu Hi Aashiqui’ was part of ‘Aashiqui’ series.
Justice Sanjeev Narula observed a possibility of confusion on the part of viewership, more so when the public associates the ‘Aashiqui’ mark with the film franchise released. The court observed that even if the viewer does not immediately link the T-Series film with the previous ‘Aashiqui’ films, the possibility of initial confusion is high.
The title ‘Aashiqui’ is not merely a descriptive but a distinctive mark, which has acquired reputation and goodwill due to its association with the two films mentioned above belonging to the franchise, said Justice Narula in his judgment. The court also stressed that permitting T-Series to come up with a similar title would amount to dilution of the ‘Aashiqui’ brand and would give a false impression to the viewers that the fresh movie was part of the established franchise. Therefore, an interim injunction was issued by the court in favor of Mukesh Bhatt, restraining T-Series from using any titles such as ‘Tu Hi Aashiqui’, ‘Tu Hi Aashiqui Hai’, or any other name incorporating the Aashiqui mark for its proposed film.
This order is a huge victory for Mukesh Bhatt, who has been given reassurance of his rights over the ‘Aashiqui’ trademark once again. It also sets precedence in trademark disputes within the film industry, where the protection of well-established franchises from any potential infringement has to be considered.
T-Series had contended that Mukesh Bhatt had not objected to the use of ‘Aashiqui’ in other contexts, such as the movie ‘Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui,’ released in 2021, which was also produced by T-Series. The court rejected the contention and said that the rights over the trademark ‘Aashiqui’ remained with Bhatt.
The third installment in the franchise ‘Aashiqui’, therefore, hangs into uncertainty with the interim order of the court. The case brings in the complications of IP rights in Bollywood wherein a single-word usage can develop into a long and exhaustive legal battle. For the time being, however, the victory of Mukesh Bhatt saves the brand name from dilution and keeps the legacy of one of Bollywood’s most favorite romantic franchises alive.
Source: Pinkvilla, ABP live
