Delhi High Court Protects Personality Rights of Filmmaker Karan Johar

The Delhi High Court has recently passed an ex parte interim order protecting the personality rights of filmmaker and producer Karan Johar.

Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora observed that infringing websites and platforms had unauthorisedly exploited and misappropriated Johar’s voice, name, and image for commercial gain, amounting to violation of his personality rights. The Court held that such conduct was liable to be injuncted.

“On a prima facie assessment, it is evident that the videos, memes and social media posts available on the platforms of Defendant Nos. 7, 14 and 15 contain abusive and profane words as well as innuendoes, which appear to be offensive,” the Court observed.

Emphasising the increasing misuse of celebrity attributes with the rise of advanced technology, Justice Arora said, “With the availability of advanced technology, it has become possible and easy for any individual, entity to unauthorisedly and/or illegally use, copy and imprint the personality attributes of any celebrity for unearned commercial gains.”

Holding that Johar was entitled to protection, the Court concluded that if an injunction was not granted, it would cause irreparable harm to his reputation.

“In view of the above, the Plaintiff has established a prima facie case for grant of an ex parte ad interim injunction. The balance of convenience also lies in favour of the Plaintiff and against the Defendants. This Court is of the prima facie opinion that if an injunction is not granted in favour of the Plaintiff, irreparable loss and harm would be caused to the Plaintiff’s reputation,” the Court said.

Court restrained several defendants, including leading tech platforms, e-commerce sites, and content-sharing portals, from the unauthorised use of Johar’s name, image, voice, and likeness.

It further directed intermediaries to take down URLs carrying disparaging material featuring Johar, available on their respective platforms as well as social media accounts, within one week. It also directed the defendants to provide Basic Subscriber Information (BSI) details, including IP logs of the account holders who had published the said URLs.

“The Primary Infringing Defendants or anyone acting on their behalf are restrained from utilising the Plaintiff-Karan Johar’s name, his acronym ‘KJo’, likeness, image, voice, personality or any other aspects of his persona to create any merchandise, or in any other manner misuse the said attributes using technological tools such as Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, deep fakes, face morphing, GIFs either for monetary gains or otherwise to create any videos, photographs, etc., for commercial purposes, so as to result in violation of the Plaintiff's rights,” the Court said.

Senior Advocate Rajshekhar Rao, appearing for Johar, argued that the filmmaker had a fundamental right to protect his persona. “I have a right to ensure that no one unauthorisedly uses my persona, face or voice,” Rao submitted, adding that Johar was being subjected to public ridicule, including offensive innuendos about his orientation.

Appearing for Meta, Advocate Varun Pathak countered that much of the flagged content was satire or commentary, particularly on nepotism in Bollywood, and therefore constituted free expression. He urged the Court to distinguish between fair use and disparagement, warning that blanket injunctions could have chilling effects on speech protected under Article 19 of the Constitution.

Court clarified that while parody and satire enjoy protection under free speech, derogatory and obscene content could not claim the defence of fair comment.

Johar’s lawsuit sought directions restraining several websites and online platforms from selling merchandise such as mugs, t-shirts and other products carrying his name, image and likeness. He contended that such unauthorised actions not only violated his publicity rights but also amounted to misrepresentation before the public.

Notably, the High Court has previously passed similar orders protecting the personality rights of Bollywood actors Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Abhishek Bachchan.

The matter will be heard next on February 19, 2026.

For Plaintiff: Mr. Rajshekhar Rao, Sr. Adv. with Mr. Nizamuddin Pasha, Mr. Parag Khandhar, Ms. Chandrima Mitra,Mr. Krishan Kumar and Mr. Sidharth Kaushik, Advs.

For Defendants: Ms. Nirupam Lodha, Mr. Kshitiz Parashar and Mr. Gautam Wadhwa, Advs. for D-8 and 11 Ms. Mamta Rani Jha, Mr. Rohan Ahuja, Ms. Shruttima Ehersa, Ms. Diya Viswanath, Ms. Aiswarya D. and Ms. Devangini Rai, Advs. for D-6 and D-14 Mr. Varun Pathak and Mr. Yash Karunakaran, Advs. for D-15

Case Title: KARAN JOHAR versus ASHOK KUMAR/JOHN DOE & ORS.

Order Date:17 September 2025

Bench: Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora