By Khushi Namdev
Indian actor Aishwarya Rai Bachchan has filed a lawsuit in the Delhi High Court to protect her “personality rights,” aiming to prevent the unauthorized use of her name, photographs, and other aspects of her identity.
Even before the rise of Artificial Intelligence, celebrities have always been under the threat of their image, character, and likeness being misused without their consent. Now, with the acceleration of AI, the matter appears serious and concerning.
Aishwarya Rai Bachchan’s primary concern regarding registering the complaint is associated with her images and persona being replicated for multiple commercials and unlawful purposes.
Relevant to celebrities and public figures, personality rights fall under the domain of IP or Intellectual Property law in India, as their identity carries significant commercial value. These rights prevent an individual from using or misusing their identity for purposes such as advertisement, endorsements, merchandise, or other unjustifiable activities without consent and hence, are known as Personality Rights.
Presenting screenshots as proof in front of the court, the actor’s legal counsel, senior advocate Sandeep Sethi, highlighted that Aishwarya’s image and persona are being used for merchandise up for sale, and even in morphed pornographic content. He argued that these images don’t belong to the actress, and are completely AI-generated. Also, the actor never authorised such images; some of them are very intimate photographs, completely unreal and are used for satisfying someone else’s sexual desires, which is an unfortunate violation of her dignity and self-respect.
The case was heard by the bench of Justice Tejas Kataria, who stated the plans to grant injunctions and ordered the takedown of 151 URLs so far.
While personality rights are of great concern as they prevent celebrities and public figures from fraud and impersonation, overly strict enforcement of them would be an issue and may create challenges for content creators engaged in performing arts related to comedy, mimicry, satire, or parody. Hence, it is essential to approach personality rights with balance and critical consideration.