Granting an ad-interim relief to Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar, the Bombay High Court has restrained certain websites, social media accounts and others including John Doe (all unknown persons), from misusing his personality rights without his consent or authorisation.
The court on October 15 passed an order on the actor’s interim application in his commercial intellectual property rights infringement suit seeking removal of the infringing content and restraining the platforms from misappropriation of his personality rights and moral rights.
This includes the use of his name, voice, image, or likeness through AI-generated content, deepfake videos, and voice cloning. The copy of order was made available on Thursday
“What is truly alarming in a number of these cases is the realistic nature of deep fake images/videos that are being created by using Artificial Intelligence (AI). Both in the context of images and videos, the morphing is so sophisticated and deceptive that it is virtually impossible to discern that the same are not genuine images/videos of thePlaintiff,” a single-judge bench of Justice Arif S Doctor observed in its order.
The court said that “deep fake video of Kumar making communally inflammatory statements and statements about Maharishi Valmiki is deeply concerning”.
“The consequences that can arise from such content being disseminated are indeed most grave and serious. Apart from violating and affecting the plaintiff’s personality and moral rights, such videos also pose a grave threat to the safety and well-being of the plaintiff’s family members and can also have an adverse and widespread impact on society and public order, which clearly appears to bethe agenda of those who create such content,’ Justice Doctor recorded.
Therefore, the judge said, such content “needed to be removed from the public domain immediately, not only in the interest of the plaintiff but also in the larger public interest.”
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The actor had approached the High Court seeking urgent interim relief alleging large-scale misuse of his identity through AI-generated content, counterfeit merchandise, and deceptive ads on platforms like YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram, was causing “irreparable harm” to his reputation.
During the hearing, senior advocate Birendra Saraf, representing Kumar, cited several examples, including a fake movie trailer that falsely depicted Kumar as Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, which garnered nearly two million views before being taken down.
Another AI-generated trailer for a non-existent film titled “Maharshi Valmiki” misled the public and triggered protests.
The high court, pending final disposal of application, also directed other defendant social media platforms to take down and remove access to the infringed material. The HC will hear the plea next on November 12.
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Kumar is the third celebrity who availed such a relief from the HC within the last three weeks. Earlier, Justice Doctor protected veteran singer Asha Bhosle and Bollywood actor Suniel Shetty through two interim orders granting similar reliefs.
Last year, a single-judge bench of Justice Riyaz Chagla had protected the personality rights of singer Arijit Singh.
