After Aishwarya Rai and Karan Johar, Nagarjuna Akkineni Approaches Delhi HC Over Personality Rights

The Delhi High Court on Thursday, September 25, said it would pass an order on a plea moved by Telugu actor Nagarjuna Akkineni seeking protection of his personality rights.

Justice Tejas Karia, who was hearing the matter, orally remarked, “When you can identify the URLs, the best is to direct them to take down… Will pass orders.”

Appearing for Nagarjuna, Advocate Pravin Anand submitted that the actor is a highly reputed personality in the Telugu film industry, with national awards to his credit and appearances in nearly 95 films.

He argued that Nagarjuna’s name, image and persona were being misused in multiple ways, including through pornographic websites, unauthorized sale of merchandise, and circulation of AI-generated content such as YouTube shorts and videos. Anand informed the court that 14 infringing URLs had been identified so far.

 Court observed that while injunctive orders could address such violations, a question remained as to how long such protections should last in the case of public figures with long careers.

Nevertheless, the court indicated that it would pass an order safeguarding Nagarjuna’s personality rights.

Before the matter concluded, Anand urged the court to take a stronger stance on pornographic content, to which the bench responded that directions could be issued to authorities such as DoT and MeitY, provided a detailed list of offending websites was placed on record.

Nagarjuna’s plea follows a series of petitions by other celebrities seeking protection of their personality rights. Recently, filmmaker Karan Johar, actors Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Abhishek Bachchan moved the High Court alleging misuse of their names and images on products and online platforms without consent.

In Aishwarya Rai Bachchan’s case, the court underscored that “personality rights of individuals entail the right to control and protect the exploitation of one’s image, name, likeness or other attributes, in addition to the commercial gains that can be derived from the same.” The court further held that unauthorized use of such attributes not only results in commercial detriment but also undermines an individual’s right to privacy and dignity.

Similar relief was extended to Abhishek Bachchan, with the court observing that misuse of his identity through technology in misleading or derogatory contexts intruded upon his privacy and dignity.

The matter concerning Nagarjuna will be taken up next on January 23, 2025.

Case Title: Akkineni Nagarjuna v. www.bfxxx.org & Ors

Bench: Justice Tejas Karia

Date: 25 September 2025