The Delhi High Court has recently passed an order protecting the personality rights of Telugu actor Akkineni Nagarjuna.
As per media reports, in an order dated September 25, Justice Tejas Karia observed that Nagarjuna’s name, image, likeness, and persona have acquired a unique distinctiveness, and any third party using elements of his persona is likely to cause confusion or deception among the public regarding affiliation or sponsorship. The Court highlighted that exploitation of one’s personality rights puts at risk not only economic interests but also the right to live with dignity, potentially harming reputation and goodwill.
The Court has restrained the defendants, including unknown persons or John Doe, from using Nagarjuna’s name, image, likeness, or any attributes exclusively identifiable with him. It has also ordered the blocking of URLs infringing on the actor’s personality rights.
The order follows a plea filed by Nagarjuna, raising concerns over unauthorized use of his image on social media and in merchandise. His counsel had emphasised that the actor’s considerable reputation is at risk due to content misusing his image, including AI-generated content with morphed visuals uploaded on platforms like YouTube.
Further concerns were raised about the potential misuse of such morphed content in training Artificial Intelligence models, which could exacerbate the violation of Nagarjuna’s rights.
Senior Advocate Vaibhav Gaggar, along with Advocates Pravin Anand, Vaishali R Mittal, Vibhav Mithal, Shivang Sharma, Somdev Tiwari, Abhishek Nair, and Vansh Shrivastav, represented the actor in the case.
