Delhi HC Shields Akkineni Nagarjuna’s Identity From Misuse

New Delhi: A bench of Justice Tejas Karia of the Delhi High Court has protected the personality and publicity rights of Telugu actor Akkineni Nagarjuna, restraining unauthorized use of his name, image, or voice. The order, passed on September 25 and released on Tuesday, came while dealing with the actor’s petition seeking protection of his identity from misuse.

Nagarjuna had approached the court alleging that his persona was being misused for illegal commercial purposes, including the sale of merchandise, morphing of his images into pornographic content, and creation of AI-generated videos linking him to terrorist organisations and gambling.

The court observed that portraying a celebrity in misleading or derogatory contexts could harm their reputation and diminish the value of their goodwill, and stressed the need to shield public figures from such exploitation. It directed that no entity should commercially exploit Nagarjuna’s name, image, likeness, or voice without his prior consent.