In a significant legal development, the Delhi High Court has stepped in to safeguard the personality rights of prominent Bollywood actor Hrithik Roshan and renowned singer Kumar Sanu. The court has issued an order preventing any entities from commercially using their names, images, or voices without obtaining prior consent.
Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora, presiding over the single bench, announced that detailed orders would follow to compel various entities to remove online content that infringes upon Hrithik and Sanu’s rights. This includes a directive to take down instances of merchandise sales, obscene posts, and the misuse of AI for generating images or chatbots that exploit their likeness.
However, in Hrithik Roshan’s case, the court opted against an immediate takedown of his fan pages. This decision came after Meta’s legal counsel argued that removing entire fan pages would be an excessive measure. The court suggested a more nuanced approach, proposing to hear the individuals involved and consider removing specific URLs rather than broad page cancellations. Justice Arora acknowledged that while commercial misuse and morphed content are concerning, fan pages often serve recreational purposes and are not inherently defamatory. The judge assured that an injunction order would be passed for all other infringing content.
Both Hrithik Roshan and Kumar Sanu had filed suits in the court seeking protection for their publicity rights, citing instances where their personas were allegedly misused for illegal commercial activities, including the sale of merchandise and unauthorized association with various organizations.
This ruling follows a series of similar judgments that have protected the rights of other celebrities. In May 2024, veteran actor Jackie Shroff’s personality and publicity rights were safeguarded, with the court noting the commercial gains derived from unauthorized exploitation of his image and videos. Last year, actor Anil Kapoor’s name, image, voice, and his iconic catchphrase “jhakaas” were protected. Similarly, the court had previously extended protection to the personality and publicity rights of veteran actor Amitabh Bachchan in November 2022, and more recently, to Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, and filmmaker Karan Johar in September, along with Telugu actor Akkineni Nagarjuna in October.