Delhi HC to pass order protecting Abhishek Bachchan’s personality rights, curb misuse online

Justice Tejas Karia said the court would also direct the takedown of URLs infringing upon the actor’s personality rights.

The Delhi high court on Wednesday said it will issue an order safeguarding Bollywood actor Abhishekh Bachchan’s personality and publicity rights, restraining entities from commercially exploiting his name, image and voice without consent.

Bollywood actor Abhishek Bachchan. (Photo from X)

Justice Tejas Karia said the court would also direct the takedown of URLs infringing upon the actor’s personality rights.

“We’ll consider it. I will pass an order,” Justice Karia said.

The court expressed its intention a day after it indicated willingness to protect actor Aishwarya Rai Bachchan’s personality and publicity rights.

In his suit, argued by advocates Pravin Anand and Dhruv Anand, Bachchan asserted that various entities have been infringing his publicity and personality rights by using his name, voice and video for illegal commercial purposes, “clandestinely” and “surreptitiously”, without a clear disclosure of their names.

It went on to add that various entities were also using artificial intelligence to create false, misleading images/videos of him along with other celebrities, including sexually explicit and vulgar, distasteful content.

“Artificial Intelligence and Deepfake technology are being used by the defendants to misuse the person’s image, likeness, name, etc., for the purpose of gaining views and likes on their own YouTube channels, Instagram handles, and Facebook profiles,” the suit stated.

Such an action, by mischievously using advanced technology, is illegal, wrongful, deliberate, dishonest, which ultimately causes irreparable harm and injury, Bachchan said in his suit.

Google, represented by advocate Mamta Rani, submitted that the platform would take down such URLs following the court’s order.

The matter has been adjourned till January 15.

This marks yet another instance of Bollywood personalities approaching the high court for protection of personality rights. In May 2024, the court safeguarded actor Jackie Shroff’s personality and publicity rights, observing that unauthorised merchandise sales and distorted videos appeared to generate commercial gain through “unauthorised exploitation”.

The court had in 2023 issued a similar order, restraining the misuse of actor Anil Kapoor’s name, image, voice and his signature ‘jhakaas’ catchphrase. In November 2022, the high court protected veteran actor Amitabh Bachchan’s personality and publicity rights from infringement.