Delhi High Court restrains AI-generated deepfakes exploiting Allu Arjun's persona
The Delhi High Court granted an ex parte injunction protecting Telugu actor Allu Arjun's personality rights against unauthorised commercial exploitation through AI tools and deepfake technologies. The order restrains multiple entities, including e-commerce platforms and intermediaries, from using his name, image, voice and distinctive attributes without consent.
What happened
The Delhi High Court issued an ex parte ad-interim injunction in a commercial suit filed by Telugu actor Allu Arjun against several defendants, including e-commerce platforms and intermediaries, for unauthorised exploitation of his personality rights.
The court order restrains multiple entities from using his name, image, voice, dialogues, gestures, and other distinctive attributes through artificial intelligence tools and deepfake technologies for commercial gain without consent.
Reported impact
The actor's personality attributes, including name, appearance, voice, manner of delivery, gestures, attire, speech and signature, are identified as source identifiers and subject to his exclusive rights of exploitation.
Index analysis
Justice Tushar Rao Gedela observed that the actor's iconic dialogues and distinctive style reinforce his stature and demonstrate that his unique attributes are exclusively associated with him.
The court recognised that such personality rights qualify for legal protection, having previously granted similar protections to other celebrities including Nagarjuna, Abhishek Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Kumar Sanu, Salman Khan, and Kartik Aaryan.
Governance controls
The interim order requires infringing material to be taken down and restrains e-commerce platforms and intermediaries from hosting or facilitating the unauthorised commercial use of Allu Arjun's persona through AI and deepfake technologies.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.