Bombay High Court Orders Takedown Of Content Infringing Actor Preity Zinta's Personality Rights

The Bombay High Court on Wednesday directed Google/YouTube, X and Meta to remove or block access within 72 hours to the URLs identified in actor Preity Zinta's suit as infringing her personality rights, excluding one URL listed in the plaint.

The direction came in a suit alleging unauthorised use of her identity through AI-generated deepfakes, chatbot personas, GIFs and merchandise.

Justice Madhav J. Jamdar held that the material placed on record made out "a very strong prima facie case".

The court granted ad-interim protection restraining the unauthorised use of Zinta's name, image, voice, likeness and other personality traits through technologies including artificial intelligence, generative artificial intelligence, machine learning, deepfakes, AI chatbots, face morphing and GIFs.

"The infringing material falsely depicts or imitates the Plaintiff, frequently suggesting endorsements, associations or interactions which have not been authorised or consented to by her," the court observed.

Senior Advocate Venkatesh Dhond, appearing for Zinta, submitted that the actor was seeking protection of her personality rights, publicity rights and moral rights under the Copyright Act.

He argued that the protectable attributes included her names "Preity Zinta" and "Preity G Zinta", her signature, image and likeness, including her "distinctive dimpled smile", voice, mannerisms, caricature and overall public persona.

The suit names Google/YouTube, X and Meta as operators of platforms where the allegedly infringing content was hosted. Other entities have been impleaded as operators of AI chatbot services, AI image-generation platforms, merchandising websites and GIF-hosting platforms.

Domain name registrars have also been made parties to enable disclosure of registrant details where the identity of platform operators is not readily available.

The court noted that Zinta had identified AI-generated deepfake videos, manipulated photographs, memes, AI-generated voice simulations, chatbot personas, GIFs, merchandise, and other digital content using her personality traits without authorisation.

It recorded her allegation that the material falsely portrayed or imitated her and, in many instances, suggested endorsements, associations or interactions that she had never authorised.

The court also recorded Zinta's contention that certain AI chatbot platforms hosted chatbot personas purporting to be her and allowed members of the public to interact with them.

According to the order, these services used her name, image, identity, likeness and personality without authorisation and generated responses over which she had "no control whatsoever". The court noted her contention that such use was likely to mislead members of the public into believing that the chatbots represented or were endorsed by her.

"There is substance in the contentions raised by the Plaintiff that the continuing dissemination of Al-generated deepfakes, manipulated images, chatbots and other infringing content has caused and continues to cause irreparable injury to her goodwill, reputation and commercial interests. Such injury cannot be adequately compensated by monetary damages alone because once deepfake content is disseminated across the internet it is capable of unlimited replication and circulation, resulting in permanent dilution of the Plaintiff's personality rights and public image," the court held.

The court held that Zinta's personality rights and publicity rights were protected under the Constitution. It observed that "the right to life as contemplated under Article 21 of the Constitution of India includes the right to live with dignity."

The court held that the impugned content affected that right. It further held that her moral rights under the Copyright Act had been "prejudicially affected."

Pending disposal of the suit, the court restrained the operators of the AI chatbot, merchandising and GIF-hosting platforms, along with unknown persons allegedly exploiting Zinta's identity online, from using or exploiting her personality traits without authorisation through technologies including artificial intelligence, generative artificial intelligence, machine learning, deepfakes, face morphing and GIFs.

The court directed Google/YouTube, X and Meta to remove or block access within 72 hours to the URLs identified in Exhibit K to the plaint, excluding the URL at Serial No. 12.

It also directed the platforms to remove or block any further similar infringing URLs within the same period after being notified by Zinta. The platforms were granted liberty to approach the court if they believed a notified URL did not contain infringing content.

The defendants have been directed to file their replies within six weeks. Zinta may file a rejoinder within two weeks thereafter. The matter has been listed for September 3, 2026. The ad-interim relief will continue until further orders.