Kriti Sanon has approached the Delhi High Court seeking legal protection over her personality and publicity rights, contending that her name, physical likeness, and other identifying attributes have been used without her consent — including through AI-generated content and digital impersonation.
During a hearing before Justice Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav, sitting as a single-judge Bench, counsel for the actress received a direction to compile and submit relevant judgments, research papers, and other materials bearing on the legal questions around personality rights. A ruling from the bench is expected once the judges work through the submitted case law and supporting research materials placed before them. A hearing date of 29 October has been set for the case to continue.
Personality rights cases reaching the Delhi High Court have multiplied in recent years, with filings centred on AI-generated impersonation, deepfake content, fabricated endorsements, and the commercial use of public figures' likenesses without consent. Petitions filed at the Delhi High Court over personality and publicity rights have been accumulating, with this latest matter joining a string of disputes brought by well-known public figures.
Over the past several months, a wide-ranging group of public figures — spanning cricket, cinema, music, politics, spirituality, and digital media, including Gautam Gambhir, Sunil Gavaskar, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Arjun Kapoor, Allu Arjun, Nagarjuna, Varun Dhawan, Kajol, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, Jubin Nautiyal, Karan Johar, Raj Shamani, Shashi Tharoor, and Naga Chaitanya — have approached the courts seeking legal protection covering their identities, likenesses, and AI-generated replications made without their consent.
A summons was issued by the Delhi High Court in a lawsuit brought by Kangana Ranaut — a film actor who also holds a seat in Parliament as a BJP member — seeking to protect her personality and publicity rights against what she describes as the unauthorised exploitation of her identity, including the spread of pornographic and obscene material bearing her likeness across online platforms. A notice was also sent by the High Court in response to her petition for an interim injunction.
During a hearing before Justice Vikas Mahajan, sitting alone on the Bench, Ranaut's legal team received a direction to specify which defendants the proposed takedown order would cover, with the judge noting that the interim injunction application could move forward once those particulars were placed on record. The High Court ordered her legal representative to submit a revised memo of parties, following the removal of certain defendants from the proceedings.
