Delhi HC protects actor R Madhavan's personality rights, orders takedown of objectionable content

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Monday protected the personality rights of Bollywood actor R Madhavan 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 Madhavan through the use of artificial intelligence and deepfake technology and ordered the takedown of certain obscene content uploaded on the Internet. Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora said she will pass a detailed interim order in the matter.

"Issue injunction qua sale of merchandise qua defendants 1, 3 and 4 of the list and qua defendant 2 on the ground of obscenity," the court said.

Senior advocate Swathi Sukumar, representing the actor, contended that one of the defendants has created a fake movie trailer of Kesari 3 which says this movie is about to come and posted deepfake and AI-generated content in the capacity of Madhavan.

She said the actor had already approached the social media platforms against the infringing material before filing the suit.

This was submitted before the court as the judge recently took a view that individuals seeking urgent takedown of objectionable online content must first approach the social media platforms before directly seeking a judicial injunction.

The court was hearing a plea by Madhavan 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 of various aspects of Madhavan's personality, including his name, image, likeness, persona and voice by the defendants for their commercial gains, without consent.

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

Besides Madhavan, the court also heard similar personality rights suits filed by Telugu actor NTR Junior and Andhra Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan, and said it would pass detailed interim orders.

Recently, Bollywood actors Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, her husband Abhishek Bachchan and her mother-in-law Jaya Bachchan, Hrithik Roshan and Ajay Devgn, filmmaker Karan Johar, singer Kumar Sanu, Telugu actor Akkineni Nagarjuna, 'Art of Living' founder Sri Sri 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.

Bollywood actor Salman Khan and former cricketer Sunil Gavaskar have also approached the Delhi High Court seeking protection of their personality rights.