Delhi High Court Protects Personality Rights Of Actor Ajay Devgn, Orders Take Down Of Obscene Content

The Delhi High Court on Thursday passed an interim order protecting the personality rights of bollywood actor Ajay Devgn.

Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora restrained the defendants from using the personality traits of the actor, including his images and other personal elements, without his consent.

The defendants are also refrained from misusing the actor's personality traits through use of artificial intelligence and deepfake technology, as well as obscene content.

Advocate Pravin Anand appeared for the actor and took the Court through the details of the defendants and impugned content.

He told the Court that the defendants were indulging in making commercial merchandise, including caps, stickers and posters (not movie posters), impersonating the actor, images showing the actor with other actors in an unpleasant manner and misuse of his personality traits through AI and deepfake technology.

On Court's query if Devgn has lodged a protest with YouTube and Google regarding unpleasant content against him on social media, Anand replied in the negative.

On this, the Court said that while interim relief will be granted to Devgn today, but it will clarify in the order that henceforth, the plaintiffs in such cases will have to first lodge protest with the social media intermediaries.

The judge also said that while obscene and profane content will be ordered to be taken down, images which are mere reproduction cannot be ordered to be removed at an interim stage without hearing the party concerned.

Recently, coordinate benches have passed orders protecting the personality rights of “The Art of Living” foundation founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Telugu actor Nagarjuna, Bollywood actors Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan and film producer Karan Johar.

Notably, Justice Arora recently protected the personality rights of journalist Sudhir Chaudhary, who had sought relief regarding the circulation of allegedly misleading and AI-generated videos against him on social media.

The judge also passed a john doe order protecting the personality rights of podcaster Raj Shamani, observing that he is a known face in India, especially in the field of content creation.

Title: AJAY ALIAS VISHAL VEERU DEVGAN v. THE ARTISTS PLANET & ORS 

Citation: 2025 LiveLaw (Del) 1612