Earlier this year, we have reported about eminent film personalities like Nagarjuna, Abhishek Bachchan, and Akshay Kumar getting their personality rights protected by law. On Wednesday, a Hyderabad civil court passed an ad-interim injunction protecting Chiranjeevi’s personality nights, restraining many online platforms from using his personality traits for commercial gain without permission.
The order was delivered by Chief Judge S Sasidhar Reddy on September 26 on a plea filed by Chiranjeevi seeking urgent relief against misuse of his personality attributes, including through artificial intelligence and future digital formats. In a case filed at Hyderabad civil court, Chiranjeevi alleged that his film titled and stills were being illegally used by many platforms online to sell their merchandise, also citing instances of AI-generated memes and videos which could lead to his misrepresentation in a defamatory way. “These videos can be used not only for commercial purposes, but also for propagating political ideas or anti-national ideas or for salacious or pornogrgphic purposes. Hence, the contention that if such use is made the damage cause would be irreparable is prima facie acceptable,” the judge said.
The injunction included permissions for titles like ‘Mega Star’, ‘Chiru,’ ‘Annayya,’ ‘Boss, and ‘Mega Star Chiru’ which were deemed as integral parts of his personality and remained liable to misuse by third-party platforms. The case will next be heard on October 27.
The court noted that any product, image, video, or meme containing Chiranjeevi’s face or titles would be instantly associated with him, also observing that if the actor’s reputation was damaged due to unsolicited associations, it could not be compensated monetarily.
Other prominent celebrities who have their personality rights protected by Delhi High Court include Anil Kapoor, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, and Vishnu Manchu.
