Nagarjuna ‘grateful’ to Delhi HC for protecting his personality rights against misuse of his identity

Nagarajuna had approached the court seeking protection of his personality rights against misuse of his identity in the digital space.

Nagarjuna had approached the Delhi High Court seeking protection of his personality rights against misuse of his identity in the digital space. With the approval given to the case, the star has now expressed his gratitude to the Delhi HC for considering his case and securing the best solution.

Nagarjuna thanked the Delhi HC for passing the order on protection of his personality rights. (PTI)

What Nagarjuna said

Nagarjuna took to his X account and wrote, "Grateful to the Hon’ble Delhi High Court for protecting my personality rights in today’s digital age.

The vital legal strategy and arguments were led by Senior Counsel Mr. Vaibhav Gaggar, and Mr. Pravin Anand alongwith Ms. Vaishali, Mr. Somdev, and Mr. Vibhav.

Thank you for standing by me. 🙏🏼"

Advocate Pravin Anand appeared for the actor and submitted that Nagarjuna, with 95 films to his credit and two national awards, enjoys a formidable reputation in the Telugu film industry. Nagarjuna's large online presence, over six million followers on X and more than eight million on Facebook, was also highlighted.

The petition flagged three categories of violations: pornographic content falsely attributed to him, unauthorised merchandising, and AI-generated material misusing his likeness.

More details

Counsel pointed to YouTube shorts and paid promotional videos that use hashtags linked to Nagarjuna and warned that such content could further be used to train artificial intelligence models.

Advocate Pravin Anand argued the case primarily, assisted by advocates Vaishali Mittal, Vibhav Mithal, and Shivang Sharma. Senior Advocate Vaibhav Gaggar also appeared in the matter.

The Court observed that once material is uploaded on the Internet, generative AI models can pick it up regardless of its authenticity. While noting that specific URLs—14 identified so far—can be directed to be taken down, Justice Karia also remarked on the broader question of how long such injunctions can reasonably continue, given the enduring fame of public figures.

Recently, in line with its efforts to safeguard celebrity rights in the online ecosystem, the Delhi High Court restrained various websites and platforms from violating the publicity and personality rights of Bollywood actors Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Abhishek Bachchan.

The Court had prohibited the respondents from misusing their names, images, voices, acronyms, likenesses, or any attributes uniquely identifiable with them.

(Via inputs from ANI)