Actor Ravi Mohan faces contempt case in Delhi High Court over failure to take down 'Bro Code' film promos

The Delhi High Court on Friday sought the response of actor Ravi Mohan, his production house Ravi Mohan Studios and co-director Keeneeshaa Francis (defendants) to a contempt of court case filed for allegedly violating an interim order restraining the use of the term “BRO CODE” as the title of their upcoming film [Indospirit Beverages Vs Ravi Mohan Studios].

Justice Tejas Karia issued notice on the contempt application and directed the defendants to file their reply within one week. The case will come up for hearing on November 25.

 On October 14, the Court had passed an interim order restraining the film production house of actor Ravi Mohan from using "BRO CODE” for an upcoming film.

The order was passed on a trademark suit filed by Indospirit Beverages Private Limited, which sells the popular carbonated wine-in-a-pint beverage of the same name.

The Court held that the Ravi Mohan Studios' use of an identical mark for a film title was likely to create consumer confusion and erode the goodwill and reputation associated with Indospirit’s flagship product.

Indospirit's counsel argued today that the defendants were not only present when the injunction was granted but were also subsequently notified by email. Despite this, they allegedly failed to remove the movie’s promotional material and trailer bearing the “BRO CODE” title from their official pages, Indospirit said.

Indospirit referred to screenshots of the trailer still available on the studio’s YouTube channel and asserted that such conduct was in wilful and showed a deliberate disobedience of the Court's injunction order.

The defendants argued that no contempt had been committed because the trailer relied upon by Indospirits was uploaded on August 27, 2025, well before the injunction was granted.

“After 14-10-2025, I have not adopted or used it anywhere. The order is only prospective,” the lawyer submitted.

He contended that the injunction did not direct the removal of pre-existing material and only prevented future use.

The defendants added that the trailer — now widely circulated across multiple platforms — had gained nearly 12 million views, and taking it down would cause significant financial loss with no benefit to Indospirit.

They also informed the Court of their intention to file an application to vacate the interim order, asserting that they hold copyright registration for the title and are pursuing relief before the Madras High Court in related proceedings.

The Court noted that the interim order barred all forms of use, adoption, reproduction, broadcasting, promoting, publishing, displaying, communicating, selling or offering for sale of the mark “BRO CODE” in connection with the film and its promotional materials, and that continued availability online may fall within its scope.

The Court said the defendants were free to contest the injunction order by filing appropriate applications, but meanwhile, could not continue using the mark.

Indospirit was represented by Advocates Ankur Sangal, Ankit Arvind, Shilpi Sinha, Priyanka Jaiswal, and Nishesh Gupta from Khaitan & Co. Advocates Aditya Ganju and Saumanyu Sethi from AG Chambers also appeared for the company.

Ravi Mohan Studios was represented by Advocates Karthikei Balan, Vishnu Kumar and Sidhant Verma.