Varun Dhawan gets legal shield: HC bans AI deepfakes, chatbots and fake celebrity bookings

The Delhi High Court has granted an ex parte adinterim injunction in favour of Bollywood actor Varun Dhawan restraining multiple entities from unauthorised commercial exploitation of his name image voice and other personality attributes including through artificial intelligence AI tools and deepfake technologiesA singlejudge Bench of Justice Jyoti Singh passed the interim order in a commercial suit filed by the actor against several defendants including online eventbooking platforms ecommerce websites social media accounts intermediaries and unidentified John Doe entities allegedly involved in the unauthorised use of his personaThe suit alleged largescale misuse of Dhawans personality and publicity rights through unauthorised celebrity booking services sale of merchandise bearing his name and likeness dissemination of derogatory and abusive content and creation of AIgenerated images videos and deepfakes portraying him in inappropriate scenariosIt also flagged the circulation of pornographic content falsely associated with the actorIn its order the Delhi High Court observed that Dhawan is a celebrated Hindi film actor with a career spanning over 14 years and enjoys substantial goodwill reputation and commercial valueThe order recorded that Dhawans name image voice likeness signature and other distinctive characteristics are uniquely associated with him and constitute valuable personality and publicity rights deserving legal protectionJustice Singh observed that the plaintiff has secured statutory protection through trademark registrations over his name and signature and that these attributes along with his image voice and likeness are exclusively associated with himldquoOn a holistic reading of the plaint and perusal of the documents the Court is of the view that the Plaintiff has made out a prima facie case for grant of ex parte ad interim injunctionrdquo the Delhi High Court saidldquoThe balance of convenience lies in favour of the Plaintiff and irreparable harm and injury shall be caused to him if the ex parte injunction as sought is not grantedrdquo it addedJustice Singh further observed that several defendants were prima facie violating Dhawans personality and publicity rights by offering unauthorised appearance bookings selling merchandise bearing his identity and hosting objectionable AIgenerated contentThe judge also took note of submissions that certain defendants were using AI and deepfake technology to generate ldquodistastefulrdquo and misleading content including suggestive and pornographic material which could tarnish the actorrsquos reputation and mislead the publicAccordingly the Delhi High Court restrained the defendants and their associates from using or exploiting Dhawans name image voice likeness or any other identifiable attribute of his persona for commercial or personal gain including through Artificial Intelligence Generative Artificial Intelligence Machine Learning Deepfakes AI Chatbots Face Morphing and other technologiesIt also barred the sale advertisement or facilitation of merchandise bearing the actors identity without authorisation and restrained certain social media accounts from creating or disseminating abusive derogatory or misleading AIgenerated content involving himDirecting immediate remedial action the Delhi High Court ordered the takedown of numerous infringing URLs across websites ecommerce portals and social media platforms within 36 hours of receiving the orderIt further directed intermediaries to remove any fresh infringing content notified by the actor within the same time frame and disclose basic subscriber information of identified accounts and channelsDuring the hearing one of the defendants submitted that it had already removed the impugned profile relating to Dhawan after receiving an advance copy of the suitThe statement was taken on record by Justice SinghThe matter has been listed before the Joint Registrar on August 5 for completion of pleadings and before the Delhi High Court on October 1 for further hearingThe Varun Dhawan case adds to a growing list of highprofile personalities invoking their personality and publicity rights before the Delhi High CourtIn recent months former cricketer and current head coach Gautam Gambhir former India captain Sunil Gavaskar spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar actors Arjun Kapoor Allu Arjun Nagarjuna Kajol Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Abhishek Bachchan singer Jubin Nautiyal filmmaker Karan Johar podcaster Raj Shamani and Congress MP Shashi Tharoor have secured or sought court protection against the unauthorised use of their identity likeness or AIgenerated imitationsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever