Delhi High Court Protects Actor Hrithik Roshan's Personality Rights, Refuses To Take Down Fanpages For Now

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday directed the removal of certain links and listings on various internet and e-commerce websites, which allegedly infringed the personality rights of Actor Hrithik Roshan.The court, however, declined to grant ex-parte relief against Instagram pages and fan clubs of the Bollywood actor, who had approached the court seeking protection of his personality rights against unauthorised use of his persona for alleged commercial purposes.Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora noted that fanpages of the actor could not be taken down at the present stage since there was no element of commercialisation and nothing defamatory was being said about the actor.Senior Advocate Sandeep Sethi appeared for Roshan and submitted that his images and name were being used for profiteering purposes to sell merchandise such as bags, clothing, etc. It was further claimed that videos of the actor were being used for dance tutorials in an unauthorised manner.The court, however, noted that, "It's a song which is of Hritik Roshan which they will be using for dance tutorial. They are using that performance to teach people. It is not commercial merchandise. At this stage i am not persuaded by this...This is available in public domain. Anybody can use this."On the plea to take down fan pages of the actor for violating his personality rights, the court noted that a fan page which uses the actor's image for a non-commercial purpose cannot be taken down till the said person is heard. However, it agreed to take down the AI content of the actor."We can't have fanclubs taken down at ex parte stage. Let this be for a later stage. I am not willing to take down fan pages. We will ask them to provide you BSI details. I understand commercialisation, morphed, obscene, but I don't understand fanclub takedown...Instagram use is not only commercial. People do it for fun and recreation. These pages are not defamatory to you at all," the court noted.BackgroundThe actor has sought protection of his personality or publicity rights, including his name, voice, image,likeness and various other attributes.Roshan has alleged unauthorised use of his personality rights by third-parties for monetary gain.Justice Arora is also slated to hear tomorrow a similar suit filed by singer Kumar Sanu. Earlier, the Court had asked Meta and Google to inform as to why URLs bearing "morphed videos" and containing "profane language" against Sanu cannot be taken down by the Grievance Officers of the two social media intermediaries.Last week, Justice Arora protected the personality rights of journalist Sudhir Chaudhary, who had sought relief regarding circulation of allegedly misleading and AI generated videos against him on social media.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.Senior advocate Sandeep Sethi along with advocates Nizam Pasha, Parag Khandhar, Chandrima Mitra, Tapan Radkar, Pratyusha Dhodda, Krishan Kumar and Siddharth Kaushik appeared for Roshan. Title: HRITHIK ROSHAN v. ASHOK KUMAR & ORSCitation: 2025 LiveLaw (Del) 1309

Delhi High Court Protects Actor Hrithik Roshan's Personality Rights, Refuses To Take Down Fanpages For Now

Nupur Thapliyal

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