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.