Delhi HC protects Ajay Devgn's personality rights, orders takedown of objectionable contents

The Delhi High Court on Thursday protected the personality rights of Bollywood actor Ajay Devgn by restraining several websites and online platforms from illegally using his name or images for commercial gain without his consent.

The high court also restrained several defendants from using the personality traits of Ajay alias Vishal Veeru Devgan through the use of artificial intelligence and deepfake technology, and ordered the taking down of certain obscene content uploaded on the Internet.

Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora said she will pass a detailed interim order in the matter.

Advocate Pravin Anand, representing the actor, said the defendants were indulging in the production of commercial merchandise, including caps, stickers and posters, impersonating Devgn and images showing him with other celebrities in an unpleasant manner.

During the hearing, the court asked the plaintiff's counsel whether they had lodged a protest with defendants YouTube and Google regarding the unpleasant content against the actor on YouTube.

As the counsel replied in the negative, the judge said she will make an observation in the order that henceforth, all the plaintiffs will first lodge a protest with the social media intermediaries before approaching the court.

The court also said that it will order the taking down of obscene and profane content but images which were mere reproductions cannot be ordered to be removed at this stage without hearing the parties concerned.

The court also issued summonses to several defendants in the suit.

It was hearing a plea by Devgn seeking to protect his personality rights and restrain online platforms from illegally using his name, images and AI-generated inappropriate and sexually explicit content.

The suit relates to misappropriation, without consent, of various aspects of Devgn's personality, including his name, image, likeness, persona and voice by the defendants for their commercial gains.

The right to publicity, popularly known as personality rights, is the right to protect, control and profit from one's image, name or likeness.

Recently, Bollywood actors Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, her husband Abhishek Bachchan, his mother Jaya Bachchan, Hrithik Roshan, filmmaker Karan Johar, singer Kumar Sanu, Telugu actor Akkineni Nagarjuna, 'Art of Living' founder Ravi Shankar, journalist Sudhir Chaudhary and podcaster Raj Shamani also approached the high court seeking protection of their personality and publicity rights. The court granted them interim relief.