Delhi High Court Protects Actress Kajol's Personality Rights, Orders Takedown Of AI Deepfakes, Vulgar Chatbots

Presiding over the matter, Justice Jyoti Singh on February, 2026, found that the actress had established a prima facie case for injunction, observing that the alleged unauthorised exploitation of her attributes impacts her right to privacy/personality and live with dignity.

In its findings, the Court observed that the actress is a renowned personality whose performances “continue to resonate in the mind of the public even today”.

The actress claimed to have discovered “unpleasant AI generated content” on social media and vulgar AI chatbots that impersonate her to engage in obscene conversations. She submitted that her likeness was being utilized to host pornographic deepfake videos and sexually oriented comments on various websites, which she described as detrimental to her reputation.

The actress submitted that she is a renowned public figure who made her debut in 1992 and achieved a defining career moment with the movie Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge in 1995. She stated that her career, which includes six Filmfare Awards and the Padma Shri, has generated an enviable reputation with millions of followers across social media platforms.

She asserted that her name, voice, image, and likeness are uniquely identifiable and associated with her, forming her Personality Rights and Publicity Rights over which she enjoys exclusive control.

The actress also alleged that several defendants were engaged in egregious infringing activities, including selling unauthorized merchandise such as T-shirts and hoodies bearing her face.

The Court observed, 'Plaintiff is entitled to protection against dissemination of morphed and pornographic content as well as AI generated images portraying her in inappropriate clothing, false settings and inappropriate scenarios with other celebrities in the film industry. Such a distasteful content is harming and damaging the reputation of the Plaintiff and may mislead the public into believing what is depicted may be true.”

Justice Singh found that the actress has generated “extensive goodwill and recognition” and possesses statutory protection for the mark “KAJOL” under the Trade Marks Act. Regarding the unauthorized merchandise, the Court observed that the sale of inferior quality goods would lead to a “further debasement of the goodwill and reputation of the Plaintiff”.

Citing legal precedents like the Anil Kapoor's personality rights case, the Court stated that a celebrity's right of endorsement serves as a “major source of livelihood” that cannot be destroyed by unlawful dissemination.

The Court further observed that the use of famous attributes without authorisation leads to commercial detriment and violates the individual's dignity.

Consequently, the Court restrained the defendants and unidentified entities from violating the actress's personality rights by exploiting her name, image, voice, or likeness for commercial or personal gain.

The Court further directed e-commerce platforms to de-list infringing merchandise and ordered Meta and Google to take down hundreds of specific URLs identified in the proceedings within 72 hours.

Additionally, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) were directed to block and disable websites hosting sexually explicit and pornographic content related to the actress.

The matter is next scheduled for hearing on April 23, 2026.

For Kajol: Advocates Pravin Anand, Ameet Naik, Dhruv Anand, Madhu Gadodia, Udita Patro, Dhananjay Khanna, Nimrat Singh, Unnati Gambani, Bhavya Verma and Pranav Nair

For Defendants: Advocates Akshay Maloo and Brinda Nagaraja for Amazon

Advocates Varun Pathak, Radhika Roy and Debditya Saha for Meta

Advocates Mamta Rani Jha, Rohan Ahuja, Shruttima Ehersa and Ankit Tripathi, Advocates for YouTube