Suniel Shetty moves Bombay High Court for protection of personality rights

Bollywood actor Suniel Shetty has moved the Bombay High Court seeking protection of his personality rights, stating that many social media pages and websites are using his image for promoting their business.

The matter was listed today before Justice Arif Doctor, who reserved the order on Shetty's interim application seeking takedown of the infringing content.

Senior Advocate Birendra Saraf, representing Shetty, submitted that even deepfake pictures showing Shetty are uploaded on the internet. Saraf also pointed to the commercial use of his pictures sans any authorisation.

"Please see there is a real estate agency. There is an astrology website, which puts his photographs. Then there are those real estate agencies who are using his photographs as intervals," Saraf submitted.

The Court was also told that gambling websites are using Shetty's photograph even though he has no association with them.

"There is merchandise being sold, posters of his face, etc," Saraf submitted.

It was also pointed out that Shetty's grandchild's photographs were created using deepfake technology and put on social media.

"There is a photograph of him with a grandchild, which is a deepfake. It's not a real photograph," the Court was told.

Alleging infringement, passing off and misuse in merchandising, Shetty has sought removal of content on the social media and directions against various respondents. Shetty's counsel clarified that he was not pressing for blocking of entire websites but restricting the prayer to removal of infringing content.

Saraf was briefed by a team from Parinam Law Associates comprising Advocates Jani Jain, Monisha Bhangale, Bijal Vora and Tamanna Meghrajani