Actor Manoj Bajpayee Moves Delhi High Court Seeking Personality Rights Protection Against AI Misuse

Actor Manoj Bajpayee has approached the Delhi High Court with a formal petition seeking comprehensive legal protection for his personality rights. Filed on Monday, the legal action addresses the alleged unauthorised commercial exploitation of his photographs, voice reproduction via artificial intelligence, and potential deployment by AI chatbots without his explicit consent.

The Association of Voice Artists established contractual guidelines requiring specific duration and variants of use while prohibiting fixed fees for perpetual usage. Legal frameworks include the Trade Marks Act 1999 restricting false association without consent and common law passing off protecting persona and goodwill.

The Copyright Act 1957 grants performers economic rights under Section 38A and authors moral rights under Section 57, while the Consumer Protection Act 2019 covers false celebrity endorsements as misleading advertisements.

The 57-year-old actor's legal team raised specific grievances before Justice Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav, naming entities including H2PG Designs Private Limited. According to proceedings reported by Live Law and represented by Senior Advocate Swathi Sukumar, the defendants allegedly utilised Bajpayee's photographs to create the misleading commercial impression that he endorsed or wore suits manufactured by the brand. The petition also targets unauthorized artificial intelligence tools deployed to mimic his voice and distinctive personal identity traits.

During Monday's initial hearing, Justice Kaurav questioned why the litigation had been instituted in the Delhi High Court given that Bajpayee is primarily based in Mumbai. Senior Advocate Sukumar addressed the inquiry by submitting that several of the named defendants maintain operations or reside within Delhi, thereby establishing the territorial nexus required for the court to exercise jurisdiction.

Addressing the broader administrative challenges surrounding celebrity personality rights litigation, Justice Kaurav evaluated whether uncontested matters could be streamlined. The judge observed that routine or undefended proceedings could potentially be managed more efficiently by the court's Registrar rather than consuming judicial time with detailed hearings, remarking that there would be no point in burdening the bench when defendants fail to contest.

To establish appropriate legal frameworks for the ongoing proceedings, Justice Kaurav directed Bajpayee's counsel to compile interim and final orders issued in prior personality rights lawsuits. The legal team was instructed to place on record how coordinate benches and other High Courts have addressed comparable digital and commercial identity disputes.

This legal action arrives amid a surge of similar intellectual property and publicity petitions across Indian courts. The Delhi High Court has previously granted protective injunctions and relief to numerous prominent figures from the entertainment and sports sectors, including actors Tabu, Allu Arjun, Mohanlal, Kajol, R Madhavan, Jr NTR, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, Nagarjuna, Karan Johar, and Salman Khan, alongside cricketers Yuvraj Singh and Sunil Gavaskar and singer Jubin Nautiyal.

The petition underscores mounting legal complexities surrounding generative artificial intelligence and deepfake technology in the Indian entertainment industry. While traditional publicity disputes historically centered around unauthorized merchandise, fake endorsements, or printed photographs, modern generative platforms enable real-time voice cloning and synthetic likeness generation.

Legal experts note that such technological capabilities create acute risks of consumer deception and reputational exploitation. Bajpayee's plea seeks to establish firm legal boundaries prohibiting third parties from simulating his voice, facial structure, or conversational attributes. The Delhi High Court's forthcoming directions will determine the procedural schedule and immediate interim protections for the actor.