The Delhi High Court has granted interim relief to Bollywood actor Arjun Kapoor, restraining the unauthorized use of his name, voice, image, and other personality attributes. In an order aimed at curbing the misuse of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for creating “abhorrent” and “sexually explicit” content, the court emphasized that the actor’s unique persona is liable to be protected from exploitation for unlawful financial gain.
The lawsuit was filed by actor Arjun Kapoor seeking protection of his personality and publicity rights. The plaintiff alleged that various third parties were misappropriating his identity for commercial purposes without any license or permission. The grievances included the unauthorized sale of merchandise, impersonation, and the creation of deepfake images and videos.
Crucially, the actor highlighted the emergence of AI-generated content that portrayed him in a vulgar and obscene light, which he argued caused irreparable damage to his public image and professional standing.
Presiding over the matter, Justice Tushar Rao Gedela examined an “overwhelming number of screenshots” submitted by the plaintiff. The court noted that these exhibits provided prima facie evidence of a widespread infringement of Kapoor’s personality rights.
The court was particularly critical of the use of AI tools to generate offensive content. Justice Gedela observed:
“Clearly, those defendants who have employed AI tools to create videos containing sexually explicit and abhorrent content are demonstrably violating the personality/publicity rights of the plaintiff. In fact, such videos are vulgar and clearly would dent the image and the personality rights of the plaintiff, not only beyond measure, but presumably, irreparably too.”
The bench further noted that such activities were being carried out solely for “unlawful financial gains,” allowing defendants to unjustly enrich themselves at the expense of the actor’s reputation. The court held that Kapoor has carved out an “exclusive place for himself in the film world,” making his likeness and signature essential components of his legal identity.
Granting interim relief, the High Court restrained third parties from any unauthorized use of Kapoor’s name, voice, or image for merchandise, deepfakes, or obscene content. The court ordered the immediate removal of all infringing materials from digital platforms.
“Such content cannot be permitted to continue to be available on any platforms in any manner whatsoever and are needed to be taken down forthwith,” the court stated.
To ensure the enforcement of this order, the court directed Meta and Google to disclose the ‘Basic Subscriber Information’ (BSI) of specific offending accounts on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.
This ruling follows a series of similar protections granted by the Delhi High Court to other public figures, including Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Amitabh Bachchan, Salman Khan, and recently, cricketer Gautam Gambhir and actors Sonakshi Sinha and Allu Arjun.
