Calcutta High Court ruled Dabur’s ‘Cool King’ ad with Ranbir Kapoor doesn’t insult Emami’s products. The Court said calling a rival “Sadharan” isn’t disparagement.
Kolkata: Today, on July 2, a Division Bench of the Calcutta High Court dismissed an appeal filed by Emami Limited. The company had claimed that Dabur India’s advertisement for its talcum powder brand Cool King, featuring Bollywood actor Ranbir Kapoor, insulted or “disparaged” its own talcum powder products – Dermi Cool and Navratna.
The Bench of Justices Sabyasachi Bhattacharyya and Uday Kumar upheld an earlier modified order by a single judge.
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The judges held that the ad, where Ranbir Kapoor calls a rival product “Sadharan” (meaning “ordinary”), does not insult or mislead consumers about Emami’s products.
The Court observed:
“The freedom of commercial speech of the respondent and its fundamental right to do business cannot be throttled on a vague perception of disparagement.”
This means that Dabur’s right to advertise and do business freely cannot be blocked just because Emami felt that the ad was offensive, without strong proof.
The dispute began when Dabur aired a television ad where a character rejects a talcum powder bottle marked as “Sadharan” and instead picks Dabur’s Cool King.
Emami claimed that the bottle used in the original version of the ad – a white bottle with a green cap – looked like their own Dermi Cool design, and the use of the word “ordinary” insulted their product.
In July 2024, Emami filed a case in court and got an ad-interim injunction (a temporary stop order) on July 11, 2024. This stopped Dabur from showing the ad that used a bottle similar to Emami’s product.
Later, Dabur changed the advertisement. In the new version, the green-capped bottle was replaced with a simple white cylindrical bottle with a black cap.
The ad no longer had any bottle that looked like Emami’s products. Because of this, the single judge modified the earlier injunction in January 2025 and allowed Dabur to air the revised ad.
Still unhappy, Emami filed an appeal. Their lawyer, Senior Advocate Debnath Ghosh, argued that even in the new ad, the word “Sadharan” (ordinary) made people think badly about their talcum powders, especially Dermi Cool.
He said the black-capped bottle still reminded people of their products, and that the public would link the word “ordinary” with Dermi Cool.
On the other hand, Dabur’s lawyer, Senior Advocate Sudipto Sarkar, strongly defended the ad.
He said that Emami did not have design protection for the entire Dermi Cool bottle, only for the cap of one type. So they had no right to complain about the whole bottle being copied.
He also said that the new ad used a computer-generated, plain white bottle with a black cap, which looked nothing like any Emami product. It didn’t carry a label, didn’t use Emami’s product names, and didn’t show anything misleading.
Dabur also pointed out something interesting – Emami’s own ads in the past had compared its Navratna Maxx Cool Talc to “ordinary” powders.
Their campaigns used phrases like “normal talc” and “khushboo wale powder” (meaning fragrant powders) to highlight how their product was better.
So, Dabur said it was unfair for Emami to object when Dabur was doing the same thing – making a general comparison.
After hearing both sides, the Division Bench said that Emami was overreacting and that their claims had no solid proof. The Court found that:
- The new bottle in Dabur’s ad was “entirely different” from Emami’s Dermi Cool design;
- The word “Sadharan” was used in a general way and did not insult or degrade Emami’s products;
- There was no memory or “double recall” among average consumers linking the earlier version of
the ad with the current one.
The Court further commented:
“Unless one is an avid follower of advertisements, having nothing better to do, it is improbable that a common target consumer of normal prudence would have such double recall.”
This meant that only someone watching ads all day might remember both versions and connect them. A regular consumer wouldn’t notice or care that much.
Another point raised was whether courts are allowed to “pre-approve” advertisements or not.
The Bench clarified that when a company changes an ad because of a court order, the court can look at the new version to decide whether it breaks any rules.
The case is not the first time Dabur and Emami have fought in court. In 2023, Emami had also taken Dabur to court over the packaging of Cool King Thanda Tel (hair oil), saying it looked too similar to Navratna hair oil.
In the present matter, Emami was represented by Senior Advocate Debnath Ghosh, along with advocates Shuvasish Sengupta, Biswaroop Mukherjee, Mini Agarwal, and Ratnadipa Sarkar.
Dabur was represented by Senior Advocate Sudipto Sarkar, briefed by advocates Sourajit Dasgupta, R. Jawaharlal, Meghna Kumar, and Sudhakar Prasad.
Case Title:
Emami Limited vs Dabur India Limited
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