The Bombay High Court said on Wednesday that it will order the takedown of online content infringing the personality rights of actor Kartik Aaryan. This will include unauthorised commercial exploitation of his name and image on the internet.
As per a report in Bar and Bench, Justice Sharmila Deshmukh said she will pass the order in Kartik’s favour. This came after Kartik’s lawyer, Birendra Saraf, flagged such content some of which he alleged were scandalous. “I want that order which your Ladyship has considered earlier, that upon my pointing out to them, they will remove it. I don't want them to do a suo motu enquiry or something. I will keep informing them whatever I come to know and they can remove it. He is a prominent actor, even his name has a trademark. There are images being used to sell merchandise. There is artificial intelligence created videos. Some of these are quite bad and some of them are just affecting his personality. Some of them are scandalous," Birendra said a per the report.
Justice Sharmila then said she will pass appropriate orders in favour of Kartik.
The plea filed by Kartik alleged that his name, image and likeness were being used on unauthorised merchandise, advertisements and other digital content without consent, thereby infringing his publicity and privacy rights. He sought a permanent injunction restraining the defendants from using his photographs, videos, voice or any other personality attributes for trade, promotion or endorsements, including through artificial intelligence tools and deepfakes. He further prayed for directions to online intermediaries and government authorities to take down content that violates his personality rights and disclose the identities of anonymous offenders.
On the work front, Kartik was last seen alongside Ananya Panday in the romantic-comedy Tu Meri Main Tera Main Tera Tu Meri (2025). His upcoming film is the creature-comedy Naagzilla.
