Delhi HC Restrains Unauthorised Use Of Abhishek Bachchan’s Personality Rights [Read Order]

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court has granted an ad-interim ex-parte injunction protecting Bollywood actor Abhishek Bachchan’s personality rights, restraining multiple entities from misusing his name, image, voice, and other persona attributes for commercial gain without authorization.

Justice Tejas Karia delivered comprehensive observations on the unauthorized commercial exploitation of celebrity personality rights and emphasized the need for judicial intervention to protect an individual’s dignity and economic interests.

The court was hearing a plea filed by Abhishek Bachchan against The Bollywood Tee Shop and 17 other defendants, challenging widespread misuse of his personality across various platforms including e-commerce websites, YouTube channels, and merchandise sellers.

The court noted: “The unauthorized commercial exploitation of Personality Rights directly impacts the economic interests as well as the dignity of the concerned individual, potentially causing irreversible injury to their reputation and goodwill.”

The plaintiff, described as “one of the celebrated and recognized actors, film producers, and entrepreneurs,” had built extensive goodwill over the years. The court observed: “Over the years, the Plaintiff has built a brand of himself, wherein the public associates both ‘trust’ and ‘quality’ with the Plaintiff as also with every brand that the Plaintiff endorses.”

Multiple defendants were involved in different forms of infringement. The Bollywood Tee Shop (Defendant No. 1) was selling T-shirts displaying Bachchan’s photograph without authorization through their website. Other defendants included TeePublic (selling unauthorized stickers), Ice Poster and TopPix Autographs (selling fake signed posters), and various entities providing wallpapers and merchandise.

On the issue of YouTube and personality rights, the court noted: “Defendant Nos. 10 to 14 are YouTube channels engaged in creating AI-generated content using the Plaintiff’s name, image, likeness, and other attributes of his personality in an unauthorized manner.”

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Some YouTube channels were creating “unsavoury” and “sexually explicit content” using the actor’s persona through artificial intelligence technology. The court categorized the violations into three types:

1. Sale of products with the Plaintiff’s images.
2. Generating images with other celebrities using AI.
3. Creating inappropriate content using technology.

Justice Karia emphasized legal precedent, referencing the recent case of Anil Kapoor v. Simply Life India, where the court held: “The celebrity’s right of endorsement would in fact be a major source of livelihood for the celebrity, which cannot be destroyed completely by permitting unlawful dissemination and sale of merchandise.”

The court found technological misuse particularly damaging, observing: “The use of technology to depict the Plaintiff in settings that are misleading, derogatory, or inappropriate intrudes upon the Plaintiff’s right to privacy. Such misappropriation is further aggravated by the ease with which online content can be disseminated.”

Establishing a prima facie case, Justice Karia stated: “The Plaintiff has established a prima facie case for the grant of an ex-parte ad-interim injunction. Balance of convenience lies in favour of the Plaintiff and if an injunction is not granted in the present case, it will lead to an irreparable loss/harm to the Plaintiff and his family.”

The court issued comprehensive directions requiring all defendants to cease violating Bachchan’s personality rights within 72 hours of receiving the order. Specific defendants were ordered to take down identified URLs, with Google LLC (Defendant No. 15) directed to remove infringing YouTube content and provide subscriber information of violating channels.

The court also restrained defendants from “creating, sharing, disseminating any product and/or content through the use of any technology including but not limited to Artificial Intelligence, Generative Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Deepfakes, [and] Face Morphing, on any medium and format.”

E-commerce platforms were directed to provide basic subscriber information of sellers offering infringing products, while government authorities (Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and Department of Telecommunications) were ordered to issue necessary directions for URL blocking.

The matter has been listed for further hearing on January 15, 2026, with defendants given four weeks to file replies after service of notice.

Case Title: Abhishek Bachchan vs. The Bollywood Tee Shop & Ors

[Read Order]