When big brands sued Big Bollywood films

In the wake of recent events marked by commercial brands suing Bollywood films for (mis)using certain brand names, we take a look at films that fell into controversies for doing so


'Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani': On a law suit filed by the manufacturer of squash Rooh Afza, the Delhi High Court restrained the makers of the film from releasing the movie on TV due to some allegedly objectionable dialogues.

The court also issued notices to the director, producer and dialogue writers of the film and posted the matter for hearing on July 16. The manufacturer claimed that the product was a household name in the country and outside India and the film contained some "objectionable" dialogues about the Unani recipe.

'Ankur Arora Murder Case': A legal notice was sent to Vikram Bhatt's production by a popular biscuit brand for allegedly defaming its image in his ready to release movie.

A medical thriller, the film's trailer shows that a child dies on the operation table because he ate the biscuit just before the surgery.

The makers agreed to do away by appropriately editing the images of the biscuit.

'Barfi!': A legal notice was slapped on the makers of 'Barfi!' for allegedly referring to the 'Murphy munna' and 'Murphy radio' without taking permissions from the iconic radio brand.

While they claimed the film infringed the copyrights of their registered trademarks without obtaining a NOC, they also added that if the notice is not taken seriously, the company will be filing a legal suit against the producers, thus bringing a stay on the film's release.

'Delhi Belly': Hyundai Motor India Limited considered legal action against Aamir Khan for 'depicting their car in a derogatory manner'.

'This car is so bad that it looks like something that would result if a donkey f***ed a rickshaw' was a line from Aamir Khan productions' 'Delhi Belly'. The dialogue was said in reference to a red car that looked like Santro.

'Dabangg': The chartbuster hit item number in 'Dabangg', 'Munni badnaam hui' rubbed the manufacturers of the balm in a wrong way when Zandu Pharmaceuticals sent a legal notice to Arbaaz Khan Productions.

They had taken objection to the line 'Main Zandu balm hui darling tere liye', in the item number featuring Arbaaz Khan's wife Malaika Arora Khan and had asked the producers to withdraw the song or delete the product's name, failing which the firm had threatened civil and criminal action against the producers.

Though they later agreed to settle the issue out of court with the makers and even use 'Munni Badnaam' in their ad-jingle.