In a significant move to safeguard the intellectual property of one of Bollywood’s most beloved cult classics, the bench of Justice Amit Bansal of Delhi High Court has issued an ex- parte interim injunction against more than 30 parties for unauthorised commercial use of creative elements from the 1994 film Andaz Apna Apna.

The order comes in response to a lawsuit filed by Vinay Pictures, helmed by Shanti Vinaykumar Sinha, the legal heir of the film’s producer Vinay Sinha. The plaintiff alleged that a wide array of individuals and entities were exploiting the passing off, dilution and unfair competition, tarnishment, damages, delivery up, rendition of accounts, etc., in relation to the iconic Hindi-language feature film “Andaz Apna Apna”.

The plaintiff owns an exclusive right to all concepts, format and intellectual property rights related to film such as streaming, and making the film available on different mediums and platforms, have been assigned for a limited period. The plaintiff owns exclusive rights to all concepts, formats, and intellectual property related to the film. While certain exploitation rights, such as streaming and making the film available on various platforms, have been assigned for a limited period, all other rights including the title, format, characters, characterization, dialogues, dialogue delivery, mannerisms, costumes, and the underlying literary and artistic works remain with the plaintiff.

It was averted that each individual character of the film has an independent fan base like:-

• Crime Master Gogo, with his over-the-top costume, quirky catchphrases, and comically villainous behaviour, remains one of the most beloved comedic antagonists in Indian film.
• Amar and Prem, with their contrasting personalities, one sly and talkative, the other naïve and endearing, exemplifying the classic comic duos, thereby setting a benchmark for buddy comedies in Bollywood.
• Teja/ Shyam Gopal Bajaj and Ram Gopal Bajaj, both portrayed by Mr. Paresh Rawal, amplifies the film’s signature confusion driven plot.

The petitioner has also submitted that it has some iconic dialogues and due to its exclusive use it has become recognizable and have developed a strong secondary impact on public , these include “Aila”, “Ouima”, “Crime Master Gogo naam hai mera, aankhen nikal ke gotiyan khelta hoon main!”, "Yeh Teja Teja kya hai, Yeh Teja Teja?", “Teja main hoon, mark idhar hai”, “Do dost ek pyale mein chai piyenge, isse dosti badhti hai”, “Galti se mistake ho gaya,” and “Aap purush hi nahi, mahapurush hain.”.

Further, the Plaintiff contended that defendants are infringing the plaintiff’s rights in the said film by displaying/communicating to the public/hosting/utilising content, creating merchandise, and online content related to the said film, which exclusively belongs to the plaintiff.The products include t-shirts, hoodies, sweatshirts, mug, notebooks, posters, fridge magnets and digital art featuring the film ‘Andaz Apna Apna’ , the sites also features the character of the film which are Teja,Crime Master Gogo , Amar,Prem and Robert as the product title .The products were made available by the defendants through their website as well as e-commerce site such as “Desert Cart”, “Meesho”, “Flipkart” and “Etsy”, thereby reaching out to national and international customers.

It was submitted that defendant no. 12,19 to 21 are also exploiting and misusing the plaintiffs intellectual property rights by artificial-intelligence content such as videos and virtual stickers.The plaintiff has the right to commercialize the intellectual rights including characters of the film,their images,likeness,dialogues and has signed agreements with third parties to make merchandise available.

After hearing the party the ex-parte ad interim injunctions are passed stating that the defendant no. 1 to 16, 18 and 19 their partners, properties, affiliates,officers,servants,agents,employees and all other persons acting for and on their behalf claiming under the for in any manner hosting,streaming, making available for veiwing or downloading ,communicating to the public or creating any content including images ,videos,audio-visual content which is identical and adapted from “Andaz Apna Apna”.

An ex-parte injunction was passed restraining the affiliates,agents ,representatives,asignees,group companies or any other company acting on their behalf from manufacturing, selling, offering for sale, advertising , promoting or dealing in any goods or services ,including but not limited to merchandise,posters,cards,toys,stickers,mugs and cups or any mark ,name,label ,designation,domain name,social media handle ,storefront,hashtag,or meta-tag that is identical or similar to the film.

An ex-parte ad interim injunction was passed restraining the defendant no.1,16,18 and 19 their affiliates,agents,representatives, or any other person claiming under them from engaging in unfair competition,misappropriation,tarnishment and dilution of the plaintiff’s trademark and associated intellectual right by creating ,publishing ,hosting,streamlining, selling,or offering any content or product under the name “Andaz Apna Apna” or any similar variation thereof.

The order directed the defendant no.1 to 16 to take down the listings of infringing videos, merchandise ,involving the plaintiffs film name/character and other intellectual property rights. The injunctions also operate in respect to the mirror/redirect/alphanumeric websites/URLs which are put in play by defendant no.1 to 16,18.Defendant no . 26 are directed to take down, remove and disable the infringing videos ,shorts or other contents infringing the plaintiffs rights.

Defendant No. 17, defendant no.22, defendant no.23 and defendant no.24 are directed to forthwith delist and remove all infringing product listings being offered by the defendants. The E-commerce platforms are directed to disclose and provide all available details of the owners , operators,sellers or goods and services or creators or uploaders of the videos as the case may be.

Similarly,defendant No.26 is directed to issue necessary directions to block and disable all infringing links ,websites and social media channels identified by the plaintiff. The plaintiff is given the liberty to implead and seek the extension of the present order to additional parties/online by means of an application under Order 1 Rule 10 of the CPC ,1908 that advertise good/service and host or display content including the videos,image that infringe the plaintiff's trademarks or copyright in the same or similar manner as the goods , services and content which is ordered to be restrained or taken down by this order.

Further, the court stated that a notice to be issued to the defendant , the notice is accepted by Shruti Erisa counsel appearing on behalf of Google LLC, the notice to be issued to all other defendants too. The reply must be filed within 4 weeks ,Rejoinder if any be filed within two weeks ,Complicate with the order Rule3 of CPC to be done within 5 days from today.The necessary affidavit to be filed within one week later.The matter must be listed before Joint Registrar on 4th August 2025, for completion of service and proceedings and further, the matter should be listen before the court on 26th September 2025.

Case Title:- Vinay Pictures through its proprietress Ms.Shanti Vinay Kumar Sinha Vs Google Hope & Othrs

Advocate for the petitioner:- Mr. Pravin Anand, Mr. Ameet Naik, Ms. Vaishali Mittal, Ms. Madhu Gadodia, Mr. Siddhant Chamola, Ms. Prachi Sharma, Mr. Shivang Sharma, Ms. Saijal Arora, Mr. Sujoy Mukherjee and Mr. Devushal Tudekar, Advocates

Advocate for the Respondent:- Ms. Mamta Jha, Mr. Rohan Ahuja, Ms. Shruttima Ehensa, Ms. Aiswarya Debadarshini and Mr. Rahul Choudhary, Advocates