Ajay Devgn moves Delhi High Court to shield his personality rights
Bollywood actor Ajay Devgn has approached the Delhi High Court to safeguard his personality rights, joining a growing wave of Indian celebrities seeking legal protection against unauthorised commercial use of their likeness.
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Bollywood actor Ajay Devgn has reportedly moved the Delhi High Court to protect his personality rights, with the case scheduled to be heard tomorrow, as per reports. The entertainment industry — long built on the monetization of recognizable faces — is navigating a new legal and commercial battleground as an accelerating wave of litigation seeks to block the unauthorised use of celebrities’ names, images and voices.
Read more: Delhi High Court grants John Doe order protecting Raj Shamani's personality rights
The phenomenon has escalated from occasional trademark filings to a steady stream of suits in the Delhi High Court aimed at stopping what lawyers and brand managers call “dilution” and the commercial misappropriation of persona — a trend that industry executives say has material financial consequences for studios, advertisers and technology platforms alike.
Over the past few months, a number of high-profile figures — Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, Hrithik Roshan and others — have asked the Delhi High Court for relief against unauthorised uses of their likenesses, including alleged AI-driven deepfakes and commercial endorsements posted without consent.
The courts' interventions have, in some instances, produced interim reliefs that block offending content and order platforms to take down material deemed to misappropriate personality rights. Those rulings have helped crystallize the idea that a public figure’s “persona” has economic value and legal protections beyond ordinary privacy or copyright claims.
Where courts go, markets follow. Legal protections around personality rights are changing how talent managers, studios and brands negotiate deals. Companies that license a star’s image or voice are increasingly treating those assets as intellectual property whose unauthorised use can cause measurable brand damage or lost licensing revenue.
Marketing executives say that, in digital-first campaigns — where a single viral clip or an AI-generated imitation can reach millions in hours — the ability to enforce exclusivity becomes a material part of a celebrity’s commercial worth. Recent reporting has shown regulators and courts moving faster than before to curtail obvious commercial exploitation, a development that has echoes for advertising, streaming and influencer strategies.
