Delhi HC protects Allu Arjun's personality rights, orders for infringing material to be taken down

The Delhi High Court has granted an ex parte adinterim injunction in favour of Telugu film star Allu Arjun restraining multiple entities from unauthorised commercial exploitation of his name image voice and other personality attributes including through artificial intelligence AI tools and deepfake technologiesA singlejudge Bench of Justice Tushar Rao Gedela passed the interim order in a commercial suit filed by the actor against several defendants including ecommerce platforms intermediaries and entities allegedly hosting objectionable and AIgenerated contentThe suit alleged largescale misuse of the actorrsquos persona through unauthorised sale of merchandise dissemination of sexually explicit and derogatory content and use of AIbased tools to clone his voice and simulate interactions such as fake callsIn its order the Delhi High Court observed that Allu Arjun is a well recognised well respected and commercially successful actor in India popularly known as the Icon Star of the Telugu film industry with immense goodwill and reputation built over decadesThe order further recorded his rise from a child artist in Vijetha to national prominence through blockbuster films like Pushpa The Rise and its sequel Pushpa 2 The Rule observing that the success of these films and the popularity of his dialogues and mannerisms reflect his iconic statusJustice Gedela said the material on record demonstrated that the actorrsquos name appearance voice manner of delivery dialogues gestures attires speech signature and likeness are distinctive attributes exclusively associated with himThe overwhelming documentary evidencehellip clearly demonstrates the stellar career of the plaintiffhellip The highly popular dialogues and other distinctive attributes also demonstrate the iconic status of the plaintiff the Delhi High Court saidIt further recognised that the actor had secured statutory protection through multiple trademark registrations of his name and associated marks which are entitled to legal protectionOn the issue of infringement Justice Gedela observed that the defendants were prima facie engaged in unauthorised commercial exploitation and misuse of the actorrsquos personality rightsThe plaintiff has been able to prima facie establish a strong case in his favourhellip The balance of conveniencehellip would tilt in favour of the plaintiff the order held It added that denial of interim relief would cause irreparable loss and injury which may not be compensated in monetary termsThe Delhi High Court restrained the defendants and their associates from using or exploiting Allu Arjunrsquos name image voice or any identifiable attributes for commercial or personal gain including through Artificial Intelligence Generative Artificial Intelligence Machine Learning Deepfakes Face Morphing and across digital and physical platformsIt also restrained the sale of merchandise such as clothing posters and other goods bearing his persona without authorisation and barred the creation or dissemination of AIgenerated content mimicking his identityTaking note of specific infringing material the Delhi High Court directed certain defendants to take down identified links and websites within 72 hours It further ordered intermediaries to block any additional infringing content upon notification by the plaintiffDuring the hearing one of the defendants submitted that it was merely an intermediary and had already taken down the impugned content upon receiving notice of the suitThe order directed the filing of a compliance affidavit within three working days The Delhi High Court has listed the matter before the Joint Registrar on July 14 for completion of pleadings and before the court on September 24 for further hearingThe Allu Arjun case adds to a growing list of highprofile personalities invoking their personality and publicity rights before the Delhi High Court In recent months former India cricketer and current head coach Gautam Gambhir former India captain Sunil Gavaskar spiritual leader and Art of Living founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar kathavachak Aniruddhacharya Maharaj actors Nagarjuna Kajol Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Abhishek Bachchan singer Jubin Nautiyal filmmaker Karan Johar and podcaster Raj Shamani have secured court protection against the unauthorised use of their identity likeness or AIgenerated imitations