An AIdentity crisis

Vivek Sehrawat knows exactly what it feels like to watch someone else profit from his face. The content creator has seen his work copied, reposted and monetised by strangers on Instagram more times than he can count.

“People copy content almost word for word, including the idea, music, lines and even screenshots, and present it as their own,” he said. “When content is taken out of context, it degrades the creator’s brand, and there is very little we can do about it.”

For Sehrawat, the math is quite simple. For creators, identity is their real estate. “Identity is what all creators really sell. And as AI makes copying easier, managing and protecting that identity will become essential.”


He is not alone in this realisation. Across India, celebrities and influencers are waking up to a new reality.

In 2026, your face, voice and persona could be worth more than your talent. As AI makes it alarmingly easy to clone and repurpose anyone’s likeness, identity is no longer just about reputation. It is intellectual property, complete with valuations, legal safeguards and licensing frameworks.Nikhil Taneja, content creator and cofounder of We Are Yuvaa, is blunt about the risks.

“Female creators are most likely to be harmed and are already being deep faked,” he said. “Unless there are government-level policy protections, we are headed for a dangerous era of abuse and misinformation that cannot be distinguished from reality.”

The threat is not imaginative. Over the past year, actors such as Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Abhishek Bachchan, along with filmmaker Karan Johar, sought legal relief against the misuse of their identities in online content and advertising.

Others such as Akshay Kumar, Anil Kapoor, Jackie Shroff and recently Bhuvan Bam (YouTuber and actor) and Vivek Oberoi have also moved to court, highlighting how digital and AI-led misuse has brought identity protection into the legal spotlight.

The legal framework is catching up. Indian courts are increasingly recognising personality rights and granting injunctions against unauthorised use, even though there is no specific law yet in place.

Hardeep Sachdeva, senior partner at AZB & Partners, explained that trademarks protect names, logos and catchphrases used in commerce, while personality rights cover broader identity traits like face, voice and persona. “Their identity is no longer just a matter of reputation but a monetizable property,” he said.

Aarushi Jain, partner at Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, noted that courts in India have been particularly progressive in this area. “Courts recognise that economic benefits from exploitation of such rights should accrue to, and with the consent of, celebrities,” she said.

Some celebrities now trademark their names, signatures, or even nicknames to license them for products such as perfumes, apparel, or cosmetics. But the question often asked is, why do brands care so much about identity in the first place? “Brands seek celebrities and influencers because people are inspired by them and want to follow them,” Jain said. “They want to look like them, talk or sing like them, or have a persona like them.”

That commercial angle is exactly why misuse can be so damaging. For creators like Sehrawat, platforms like Instagram offer little meaningful protection. Copyright claims fail when someone recreates your content almost exactly, but not the same.

Commentary rules allow others to repurpose your clips out of context. The result is that someone else builds an audience using your identity, monetises it, and you get nothing.Some in the industry are building technical systems to prevent misuse before it happens.

Dipankar Mukherjee, CEO of Studio Blo, explained that his platform allows celebrities to license their digital likeness with clear boundaries around duration, scope and approvals. “A celebrity’s likeness can only be created from assets they provide, and every usage is governed by clear permissions,” he said. “No content leaves the system without sign-off from the talent or their representatives.”

This approach treats consent not as paperwork but as concrete infrastructure.

“Earlier, rights were managed through contracts reacting to misuse after it happened,” Mukherjee said. “Today, generative tools make identity infinitely reproducible, which means rights management has to become proactive, technical and continuous.” However, Mukherjee acknowledged that such protections are currently limited to top-tier celebrities. “Mid-tier and regional creators need these protections even more than big stars,” he said. “They have growing visibility but limited legal leverage, which makes them easier targets for misuse.”

Taneja echoed this concern. “Unless protection is done at a policy level or is made easy, it’s just a way of life we will have to navigate, as these entail expensive legal affairs to afford on our own.”

The gap between visibility and protection is growing as AI solutions lowers the cost of creating realistic content. Identity misuse can now happen faster and on a much larger scale than ever before.

Industry experts expect protection strategies to shift from reacting to violations towards preventing them through clearer contracts, stronger consent mechanisms and tighter oversight.

Sachdeva believes specific legislation addressing personality rights and AI cloning will emerge soon. Until then, case-by-case judicial intervention will remain the primary safeguard. “Identity is becoming the new form of intellectual property portfolio,” he said. “Its protection, valuation and monetisation are set to be one of the most significant legal and financial trends of 2026.”