‘Jhakaas’ to ‘Beedu’ – B-town stars rush to protect personality rights amid AI trends

As artificial intelligence enables cloning of voices and deepfakes allow a celebrity’s face to be emblazoned on anything from t-shirts to posters, the famous are finally fighting back in court.

The latest to knock on the doors of the Delhi High Court is filmmaker Karan Johar. He follows a string of top actors from Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Abhishek Bachchan to Anil Kapoor and Jackie Shroff, who have, of late, sought protections over what lawyers call “personality rights”.

Impetus to the series of petitions before the Delhi HC came after Anil Kapoor secured an order banning the misuse of his famous dialogue “Jhakaas!” through any sort of AI tools.

Jackie Shroff, nicknamed “Beedu” by fans and colleagues, has taken similar steps to safeguard his trademark phrase and persona reflected by the word “Beedu”.

Legal experts say, simply put, personality rights are about ownership of self. These allow an individual to control the commercial use of their identity, name, image, signature, likeness or even their iconic phrases.

If a company prints mugs with Aishwarya Rai’s face, or if an AI bot mimics Anil Kapoor’s voice to sell a product, both amount to unauthorised exploitation.

The Delhi High Court has now made it clear that such misuse does not only cause financial loss, but also harms a person’s dignity. Confronted with these petitions, Justice Tejas Karia noted, “The unauthorised exploitation of one’s personality rights may not only lead to commercial detriment, but also undermine the right to live with dignity.”

The recent times have witnessed a flood of personality right petitions. After Anil Kapoor and Jackie Shroff, Aishwarya sought urgent relief against morphed images and fake endorsements, while her husband Abhishek Bachchan argued that fraudulent promotional schemes were tarnishing their family’s reputation.

Karan Johar’s case is a bit different. As a director, producer and television personality, his name carries weight not only in cinema, but also in the world of fashion and branding. His plea has highlighted how years of goodwill could be diluted overnight if his name or likeness is splashed across unauthorised merchandise or misused in manipulated content.

Experts say the answer to celebrities’ concerns lies in technology. “Deepfake videos can circulate within hours, leaving reputational damage long before a court order arrives. AI tools can reproduce a person’s speech patterns so convincingly that even trained ears may struggle to tell real from fake. For celebrities, whose livelihood depends on carefully crafted public images, the threat is existential,” said Delhi-based lawyer Sangram Singh.

Need for a dedicated law

• India does not have a single law that codifies personality rights.
• Instead, protection is stitched together with constitutional guarantees like the Right to Privacy under Article 21, Intellectual Property Rules, and case law.
• Courts rely on principles such as “passing off”, which essentially prevents someone from making a false claim of endorsement.
• Lawyers say while this patchwork is working, it also means the law evolves case by case.
• Judges are effectively writing the rulebook as they go, balancing free speech, parody and satire against the clear need to stop commercial misuse.