The Delhi High Court has passed an interim injunction protecting the personality rights of actor R Madhavan and has restrained the sale of commercial merchandise using his image and likeness, along with directing the takedown of obscene material. Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora has granted the ad interim relief, restraining the misuse of the actor’s personality traits, including his name and image.
The court has acted on a plea filed by Madhavan seeking protection against the circulation of deepfake and AI-generated content, as per media reports. Senior Advocate Swathi Sukumar, appearing for the actor, has informed the court that several defendants had posted fake trailers and other infringing material, and that the actor had first approached social media platforms for takedown before filing the suit, in line with recent judicial directions.
While granting the relief, the judge has directed an injunction against the sale of merchandise in respect of certain defendants and has restrained the circulation of content on grounds of obscenity. The court has observed that urgent protection was warranted to safeguard the actor’s personality rights.
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Similar suits have been filed by public figures including Andhra Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan, cricketer Sunil Gavaskar, and actors Salman Khan and NTR Junior. Coordinate benches of the Delhi High Court have earlier passed orders protecting the personality rights of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Nagarjuna, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan and Karan Johar. Justice Arora has also recently protected the personality rights of journalist Sudhir Chaudhary and podcaster Raj Shamani in separate matters involving alleged misuse of their identities online.
