High Court pulls the plug on a Bigg Boss ‘copy’

The High Court of Bombay has restrained a Chennai-based company, Andaman Xtasea Events Pvt Ltd (AXEPL), from coming up a show like Bigg Boss or Big Bro, following a plea by the producers of the shows. Hearing a plea by Endemol Shine Nederland Producties (ESNP) & its Indian subsidiary, the Bombay HC’s Justice BP Colabawalla ordered the AXEPL not to conduct auditions for the show, pull out advertisements related to it, & stop using taglines such as “isse apna hi ghar samjho” or “yeh bhi toh apna hi ghar hai” for its show.

According to ESNP, represented by Lawyer Hiren Kamod, the company came to know in Nov 2019, that a show “very similar” to Bigg Boss & Big Bro was being planned in the Andaman & Nicobar Islands by AXEPL. Replying to a legal notice from ESNP, AXEPL allegedly accepted the mistake & assured that it won’t infringe ESNP’s copyrights.

Not satisfied with AXEPL’s assurance, ESNP hired private investigators to probe the matter. The private investigators found that following the format of the original show, a bungalow/villa had been rented & cameras installed there. 

ESNP alleged that the investigators were told that there were plans to telecast the show on two YouTube channels, one of which was already telecasting local news from the Union Territory.

The HC observed that the audition forms & promotional material also depicted the “eye” associated with Bigg Boss, & that prima facie it seemed there was “a systematic attempt to come as close as possible to the ESNP trademarks & show to deceive the public or somehow associate the impugned mark & show with the plaintiffs.”

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