The Bombay High Court has directed streaming platform Amazon Prime to take down a Telugu film “V”, in an order on a defamation suit filed by Bollywood actor Sakshi Malik, Bar and Bench reported on Wednesday.
Malik had approached the court alleging that her photograph was used in the film by production company Venkateshwara Creations without prior permission, PTI reported. Her counsels Saveena Bedi and Alankar Kirpekar submitted to the court that the photo was taken from Malik’s Instagram account, Bar and Bench reported. They sought relief on three grounds – unauthorised invasion of privacy, unauthorised use of private material and the nature of use of the photo.
Kirpekar argued that the manner in which the image was used amounted to defamation, Bar and Bench reported.
Venkateshwara Creations, in its defence, said that they had contracted with an agency to procure the image and had assumed that prior approval would have been taken from Malik, PTI reported. The court, however, noted that this argument seemed “less than compelling”.
“It is not acceptable for them [Venkateshwara Creations] to merely pixelate or blur the images,” the court said, according to PTI. “The entire sequence which has the image of the plaintiff is to be removed immediately.”
“The fact that the image has been illicitly used is bad enough,” Justice Gautam Patel further said. “It only makes matters worse when used in a plainly derogatory and demeaning vein.”
The order directed the makers of the movie to show the altered portion to Malik and said that only then will the movie be allowed for a release again.
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