Partner Litigation, Dhruv Anand, spoke to Times of India for its dive-deep article on ‘Stars v AI’ giving a 360 degree roundup of what actually makes for personality rights, what kind of misuse is actionable, the earliest known case in this domain, how AI makes it all the more ‘surreal’ and why a suit filed by a celebrity is not always about money.
One of the key counsel in matters concerning protection of personality rights of legendary actors such as Amitabh Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai, Anil Kapoor, Abhishek Bachchan, Jackie Shroff, Mohan Babu and Vishnu Manchu, Dhruv told ToI, “Almost every case has the same categories of misuse but the most egregious is pornography. Next is impersonation through chatbots. A chatbot spoke as if you are talking to Aishwarya Rai…This wasn’t fan art but a way to dupe innocent people in her name”.
He also spoke about domestic distress that can result from morphed images.
Dhruv tracked back to one of the earliest cases dating back to 2010 in the personality rights domain. Also handled by Anand and Anand, it had us moving court against the defendant who had made a doll that danced and sang like iconic singer-performer Daler Mehndi on the press of a button.
“…judgement in that case became India’s first detailed ruling on personality rights. It defined misuse, cited international precedents, carved out exceptions, and issued an injunction. That laid the foundation.”
Dhruv also talked about behind-the-scenes relentless enforcement with celebrities hiring investigators who can scan the internet, capture metadata and flag misuse while adding that genuine humour or news is never a target. “What we target is commercial exploitation or anything defamatory or pornographic. That’s where clients get emotional,” while pointing out how personality rights have evolved into property rights in the West while India treats them as abstract reputational rights.
He also appreciated how courts are now going far with steps to curb such infringement.
etc. whilst wrongfully claiming to be part of our firm and making false claims and allegations.