New Delhi — Actor Aishwarya Rai has approached the Delhi High Court seeking protection against the misuse of her name, image, and likeness in AI-generated content depicting her in sexually explicit ways. During Tuesday’s hearing, the court hinted it may issue an interim order to restrain platforms and individuals from exploiting her identity without consent and directed that further steps be taken to remove infringing links and content.
Rai told the court she had become the target of morphed, “unreal intimate photographs” being circulated online. “Her name and image are being used to satisfy someone’s sexual desires. This is very unfortunate,” her lawyer said. The plea argues that multiple websites and platforms are profiting illegally from her likeness, naming defendants such as aishwaryaworld.com, apkpure.com, bollywoodteeshop.com, e-commerce platform Etsy, organisations like Aishwarya Nation Wealth Motivational Speaker, AI-powered chatbots, YouTube channels including NewNWSTamil and Bollywood_CinemaTV07, and even tech giant Google.
Government bodies, including the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and the Department of Telecommunications, were also made parties to the case. The petition stresses that the spread of such deepfake images is not only a violation of her publicity rights but also an affront to her dignity.
Rai has asked the court to safeguard her name, voice, image, and signature style of dialogue delivery from being misused, particularly in “unwholesome and unsavoury” ways. The matter has been posted before the court’s joint registrar on November 7, with further proceedings scheduled for January 15.
She is not the first Bollywood star to take legal action over the misuse of celebrity identity. In recent years, Jackie Shroff and Anil Kapoor have also turned to the courts to protect their personality rights against unauthorised commercial exploitation and abuse.