New Delhi, 30 September (IANS) Delhi High Court has given an advertisement-inter-prohibitory verification in favor of veteran actor Nagarjuna Akkinni, a tall person in Telugu cinema, which prevents many institutions from misusing their names, image, equality, and other characteristics of their personality for commercial symptoms.
A bench of Justice Tejas Karia passed an order in a suit filed by Nagarjuna, demanding the protection of his personality and publicity rights against unauthorized use on websites, e-commerce platforms and social media, including materials generated through artificial intelligence (AI).
Actor’s lawyers emphasized that a famous person in the South Indian film industry and a famous person with 95 feature films for his credit, Nagarjuna has created a lot of goodwill and prestige with more than four decades of contribution.
His personality, the legal team of the plaintiff, argues, carries immense business value, and any unauthorized exploitation can confuse the public, dilute their reputation, and struggle with the current support.
In his order, Justice Karia noticed that many defendants were engaged in hosting pornographic content, selling T-shirts and selling other goods without their consent to sell Nagarjuna’s name and image.
Some institutions were also using AI, Deepfac and other technical equipment to generate an actor’s characteristics.
The Delhi High Court noted that exploitation of personality rights of a celebrity could have serious consequences on their economic interests and personal dignity.
“Exploitation of one’s personality rights is the right to live not only for their economic interests but also with dignity, possibly causing immense damage to their reputation and goodwill,” said this.
Justice Karia directed to take down all the identified URLs down, blocked or disable within 72 hours. E-commerce platforms were asked to provide basic customer information to violate vendors within two weeks in a seal envelope.
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and the Department of Telecommunications were also directed to issue the necessary instructions to remove the material violating.
The Delhi High Court underlined that portraying the plaintiff in misleading, derogatory, or inappropriate settings would compulsorily dilute Nagarjuna’s goodwill and reputation. The matter is scheduled for further hearing on 23 January 2026.
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PDS / Dan