John Abraham’s firm can’t use ‘Hamara Bajaj’ as movie title

Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Saturday, ruled in favour of Bajaj Auto Ltd, and directed actor John Abraham’s film production company, J.A Entertainment Pvt. Ltd, not to use the trademark “Hamara Bajaj” or “Bajaj’ anywhere in the title or the contents of their upcoming movie.

add_main_imageBajaj Auto—India’s second largest two-wheeler maker, had taken the film company to court over the alleged infringement of their trademark “Hamara Bajaj” following the announcement of the film’s title.

According to the Internet Movie Database (IMD), an online database of information related to films, Hamara Bajaj is the story of a young man called Sanjay Bajaj, a struggling actor. The film, directed by Shoojit Sircar, follows the challenges Bajaj faces in his journey from being a struggling actor to becoming a big star. NextMAds

While the film had nothing to do with the brand or the product, the usage of their tagline—albiet as a working title for the film—did not go down well with the auto maker who felt the company was trying piggyback on the equity their brand had built over several years.

“Business is brands,” said Rajiv Bajaj, managing director at Bajaj Auto, in a response to the criticality of the court order, “a brand is weakened by diffusion,” he said in an email response.

The term “Hamara Bajaj,” was the tagline for the auto company’s advertisement for the Bajaj Chetak scooters in the mid-’80s. Given the once-ubiquitous nature of the scooter, on Indian roads, the Hamara Bajaj tagline entered the national consciousness and soon became a part of India’s pop culture. So much so, that even after the production of Chetak was stopped in 2009, the tagline and popular jingle continued to feature in corporate campaigns.

“We are yet to receive the court order, so I cannot comment on that,” said Sheel Kumar, partner, J.A Entertainment. “Having said that, we just want to clarify that the name of the character in the film is Sanjay Bajaj, which is why we used “Hamara Bajaj” as a working title. It was never our intention to use it as the real title,” he said.

According to the order issued by justice S.J. Kathawala, the Bombay High Court put a permanent injunction restraining J.A. Entertainment, “from in any manner infringing Bajaj’s registered trademark.” And also refrained the production firm from using “‘Bajaj’ as the title or the use of the mark Bajaj and ‘Hamara Bajaj’ in the contents of the proposed film, as well as its usage in respect to the proposed cinematographic movie production in any manner.” Bajaj Auto, however, is not pressing for any costs or damage.

“Honestly, to my mind, it’s not such a big deal. Considering that this was stopped well in time… before the film was shot or released,” said Ashish Patil, business and creative head, vice-president, Y-films, brand partnerships, talent for Yash Raj Films Pvt. Ltd, pointing to the case of the film Billu Barber in 2009, featuring actor, Shahrukh Khan. The hairdressers’ association raised objection to the film after its release, stating that the term “barber” had been used in a derogatory manner. The film production house was then forced to rename the film Billu, black out the word from posters and publicity material, as well as mute the use of the word in the film. “At best, it’s an opportunity lost, for someone (Bajaj Auto) who doesn’t think that,” said Patil. Adding, that filmmakers had always tapped into popular culture, and if not the term “Hamara Bajaj” he was sure they would come up with something just as appealing to audiences.sixthMAds