Delhi High Court directs takedown of obscene content and merchandise misusing R Madhavan's name, photos

The Delhi High Court on Monday ordered removal of obscene content falsely portraying actor R Madhavan [Ranganthan Madhavan Vs G Fimlz Studioz & Ors].

Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora also directed removal of webpages unauthorizedly offering merchandise in the actor's name.

The judge passed the interim order in a suit filed by Madhavan seeking protection of his personality rights.

The Court, however, refrained today from issuing any immediate directions for the takedown of AI-generated fan-page content depicting the actor.

Senior Advocate Swathi Sukumar, appearing for the actor, submitted that the statutory remedy under the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 was availed by the actor by approaching the intermediaries for takedown of the infringing material that includes AI-generated videos, deepfakes and merchandise.

She added that though certain links flagged to the social media platforms were taken down, some links were left untouched without any justification.

"There is no rational basis in removing some and not removing others. The ownership is on likeness. I have not added any parody or fan pages. I have a right over my likeness," she asserted.

Madhavan also sought take down of the fake trailers of non-existent movies named Shaitan 2 and Kesari 3.

"I have not lent my name to these movies," Sukumar said.

Regarding a social media post showing the actor as Hulk character, advocate Varun Pathak appearing for Meta argued that any direction against it would open floodgates of litigation.

"It is benign. These are memes. Everyone will come. It is someone's creativity. It may be infringement for Marvel but a fan is doing it. Someone may want to see Madhavan as Hulk," he stated.

The Court examined all the flagged URLs allegedly infringing Madhavan's personality rights and proceeded to direct take down of obscene content as well as the webpages selling merchandise in his name.

The Court also directed the social media intermediaries to disclose the basic subscriber information (BSI) details of the alleged infringers within three weeks.

With regard to the AI-generated content showing Madhavan with certain female actors, the Court stated,

"I am not clear about the AI issue, I will think about it. I will not pass orders right now. Let me mull it over. If it is obscene, it will be removed."

The matter will be taken up next in May 2026

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