The Delhi High Court ordered the immediate removal of the Kala Hiran teaser on Monday. Uploaders have exactly 24 hours to scrub the footage from the internet. And Justice Jyoti Singh flatly denied a defense request for an extension.
Khan accused producer Amit Jani of unlawfully exploiting his identity. Because a recent poster showed a lookalike holding a rifle, the actor’s legal team intervened quickly. Khan argued the image creates a misleading narrative—he pointed directly to his previous acquittal under the Arms Act.
Delhi High Court Orders Removal of Kala Hiran Teaser Linked to Salman Khan
To be fair, the defense counsel tried to brush off the complaints. They argued the teaser never explicitly names Khan and called the project a fictional work. The lawyers also noted the production avoided deepfake technology.
But the judge refused to entertain those arguments. The teaser features an actor wearing Khan’s blue bracelet. That made the connection obvious. Jani even tied the project to gangster Lawrence Bishnoi during promotional interviews—tactics the court noted crossed a strict legal line.
A Judge Says Reputation Must Be Protected
Justice Singh delivered a sharp rebuke to the defense during the Monday hearing. Platform owners like X and YouTube must step in if the original uploaders ignore the 24-hour deadline. The judge made her stance clear.
“Reputation is built with great effort,” Justice Singh stated in court. “Once lost, it’s lost.”
The defense request for extra time fell flat. “I grant you not even two minutes,” Justice Singh responded. She added, “every minute that this is in the public domain, it is harming the reputation of this plaintiff.”
She accused Jani of exploiting an ongoing legal matter for commercial gain instead of accepting the fictional defense.
“Your client seems to think he’s above the law, and he’s only getting worse day by day,” Justice Singh told the defense counsel. “It’s subjudice before the court.”
Personality Rights Establish a New Bollywood Legal Baseline
The ruling builds on a foundation set last December. The High Court granted Khan an order back then to protect his name from unauthorized commercial exploitation. So when Jani released the movie poster anyway on May 29, the subsequent legal clash highlighted a massive change for Indian cinema.
Filmmakers can’t borrow celebrity aesthetics without explicit consent anymore. It isn’t a tactic they can get away with. The court addressed intermediaries directly here—social media platforms must assume responsibility for hosting unauthorized content if uploaders fail to comply.
Independent producers face a stricter environment now. They can’t rely on lookalike actors to bypass copyright laws. Producers also can’t use ongoing criminal appeals to market independent projects, as noted in a detailed legal breakdown of the order. A public controversy is exactly what the film’s marketing team was hoping for.