Delhi HC Protects Aishwarya Rai's Personality Rights, Orders Takedown of Infringing Content

In a major relief to Bollywood actor Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, the Delhi High Court has recently protected her personality and publicity rights, noting that the unauthorised use of such rights amounts to a violation of the right to privacy, which in turn undermines the right to live with dignity.

 Court has restrained individuals, websites, and online platforms from unauthorized use of her name, image, likeness, and persona. Justice Tejas Karia, while granting an ex-parte injunction, observed that the Court “cannot turn a blind eye to unauthorized exploitation of one’s Personality Rights” and emphasized the need to protect celebrities from commercial misuse of their identity.

The actor had approached the Court seeking a permanent injunction against infringement of copyright, performer’s rights, misappropriation of personality and publicity rights, passing off, and unfair competition. She highlighted the misuse of her name and images across websites, merchandise platforms, AI-driven chatbots, and even deepfake videos on YouTube.

 Court held that Bachchan had established a strong prima facie case and that the balance of convenience lay in her favour. It said that misuse of her name, image, likeness and other elements of her persona clearly constitutes infringement, since the unauthorized adoption of such attributes would inevitably cause confusion and create a false perception of endorsement.

The Court further observed that irreparable loss, damage and injury would be caused to her goodwill, reputation and prestige if the interim injunction was not granted immediately.

“When the identity of a famous personality is used without their consent or authorization, it may not only lead to commercial detriment to the concerned individual but also impact their right to live with dignity. In other words, the unauthorized exploitation of the attributes of an individual’s personality may have two facets – first, violation of their right to protect their personality attributes from being commercially exploited; and second, violation of their right to privacy, which in turn leads to undermining their right to live with dignity,” the Court remarked.

The Court also noted that since Aishwarya Rai Bachchan is one of the most celebrated personalities in the Indian entertainment industry, who has served as brand ambassador for several companies, she has garnered significant goodwill and reputation such that the public places trust in the brands she endorses. “Any infringement of the Plaintiff’s Personality Rights, while causing confusion amongst the members of the public regarding endorsement or sponsorship of a product or service by the Plaintiff, will also lead to dilution of the Plaintiff’s reputation and goodwill,” it added.

Explaining the broader principle, the Court said, "Personality Rights of individuals, simply put, entail the right to control and protect the exploitation of one’s image, name, likeness or other attributes of the individuals’ personality, in addition to the commercial gains that can be derived from the same. Personality Rights can be located in theindividuals’ autonomy to permit or deny the exploitation of the likeness of other attributes of their personality."

The Court thus restrained Defendants 1 to 9 and 13 from violating Aishwarya Rai Bachchan’s personality, publicity and moral rights, or from passing off their goods and services as endorsed by her, by misappropriating her name “Aishwarya Rai Bachchan” or acronym “ARB”, her image and likeness, or any attributes of her persona, directly or indirectly, for commercial or personal gain. This restriction extends to the use of technologies including Artificial Intelligence, Generative AI, Machine Learning, Deepfakes or Face Morphing, across any medium or format, without her consent or authorization.

It further directed Google LLC to take down infringing URLs within 72 hours and to provide basic subscriber information within seven days. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and the Department of Telecommunications were also ordered to block infringing URLs within seven days.

The matter will next be heard on January 15, 2026.

Case Title: Aishwarya Rai Bachchan v. AishwaryaWorld.com & Ors.

Hearing Date: 9 September 2025

Bench: Justice Tejas Karia