Hyderabad: The Delhi High Court granted major relief to veteran actor Akkineni Nagarjuna, issuing interim orders that protected his personality rights. The court barred the use of his name, voice and image for any commercial purpose without his prior consent.
Nagarjuna filed the petition to stop misuse of artificial intelligence, machine learning and deepfake technologies. He argued that such tools were being used to create fake ads, viral videos and merchandise under his identity. Moreover, he warned that unchecked abuse of this technology could cause long-term harm to celebrities.
Court bars AI misuse of Nagarjuna’s identity
Justice Tejasvi Karia issued the order on Tuesday. He ruled that no individual or company could use Nagarjuna’s name or voice in commercial advertisements without consent. Furthermore, he cautioned that AI or deepfake misuse of his identity would trigger strict legal action.
Senior advocates Pravin Anand, Vaibhav Gaggar and Vaishali Mittal represented Nagarjuna. They reminded the court that the actor has acted in 95 films, won two National Awards and commands a huge following on social media. In addition, they highlighted how groups exploited his popularity by producing fake ads, obscene content and T-shirts with his image. They also cited YouTube shorts that spread false clips using hashtags, adding that AI models trained on such content could fuel more dangerous misuse later.
The bench accepted these arguments and directed immediate protection of Nagarjuna’s rights. Consequently, legal experts described the ruling as a landmark step for safeguarding celebrity rights in India’s digital era.
