Salman Khan Moves Delhi HC To Protect Personality Rights: Why Celebrities Are Taking Legal Steps
According to Salman Khan’s plea, many entities have been misusing his identity for commercial gain without permission.
Bollywood actor Salman Khan has moved the Delhi High Court seeking protection of his personality rights. A petition has been filed against several known and unknown parties, praying for a directive from the court to stop the unauthorised use of his name, image, voice and other personal attributes.
The case is listed for hearing today (Dec. 11) before Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora. According to Khan’s plea, many entities have been misusing his identity for commercial gain without permission, Bar and Bench reported on Wednesday.
With this move, he now joins a growing list of celebrities who have recently approached courts to protect their personality rights.
What Are Personality Rights?
In India, the terms “personality rights” and “publicity rights” are used interchangeably. Personality rights are gaining importance in India as the commercial use of individual identities has increased. With the rise of internet access and democratisation of artificial intelligence, it has become easier for people to manipulate voices, images or videos of popular personalities to scam unsuspecting victims.
Hence, personality rights are a crucial aspect of protecting an individual’s identity and preventing misuse for commercial gain. They ensure that a person has control over how their name, image, voice and likeness are used in public.
Many top celebrities, including Abhishek Bachchan, Nagarjuna, Anil Kapoor, Jackie Shroff and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, among others, have moved to courts over this issue in the past.
Which Indian Celebs Have Moved Courts
Earlier, Abhishek Bachchan said he went to court to protect his daughter after seeing nasty and unnecessary remarks online. This pushed him and Aishwarya to secure their personality rights, followed by a similar move to protect the personality rights of his father and superstar, Amitabh Bachchan.
Similarly, Akshay Kumar in October received interim protection of his personality rights from the Bombay High Court after AI-generated deepfakes misused his likeness.
In September 2023, the Delhi High Court restrained several websites and platforms from misusing actor Anil Kapoor’s personality attributes. The court order protected Kapoor’s name, image, voice and popular catchphrase “jhakaas” from unauthorised commercial exploitation.
Similarly, Telugu superstar Nagarjuna was also recently granted an interim injunction by the Delhi High Court protecting his personality rights, restraining the unauthorised use of his name, image and voice for commercial purposes.
