Aishwarya Rai Bachchan moves Delhi HC to protect publicity rights, also to curb misuse of AI images

Being a public figure and one of the most influential personalities in the country, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan is always trending on social media. But in the digital day and age, there's also a flip side to being famous.

Apart from the fake news surrounding around public personalities, there's also a lot of misuse of AI in the digital age.

Thus, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan has now moved to the Delhi High Court to safeguard her publicity and personality rights, thus further raising objections to the unauthorised use of her name, pictures and identity on various platforms, and also brands, products. This petition raises concern against commercial exploitation, fraudulent representations to put a full stop to further misuse and exploitation.

This also aims at curbing circulation of obscene images which are manipulated through AI. The case came up before Justice Tejas Karia, who acknowledged the seriousness of the allegations and indicated that the court was inclined to grant injunctions to stop any further misuse. The matter will now be heard again on January 15, 2026.Senior Advocate Sandeep Sethi appeared on behalf of the actress and told the court that her name and identity were being exploited on a large scale for profit and misleading publicity.

He pointed out websites that were falsely projecting themselves as official platforms and flagged unauthorised merchandise, like mugs, T-shirts and drinkware, being sold with her name and photos.Sethi told the court about a company called Aishwarya Nation Wealth, which fraudulently named Rai as its Chairperson in official documents. He stressed that the actor had no link to the entity and called the move both deceptive and unlawful.Raising further concern, Sethi informed the court that manipulated, obscene and AI-generated images of Rai were being circulated online. He said such content was not only false but also a grave violation of her dignity and rights. “Her likeness is being exploited for sexually explicit purposes,” he told the bench, describing the content as deeply disturbing.On behalf of Google, advocate Mamta Rani explained that content could only be removed if specific URLs were provided. Justice Karia noted that while a single, consolidated order might be ideal, the broad nature of the reliefs sought could require separate injunctions against each defendant. The court clarified that Rai could either submit URLs individually for takedown or pursue remedies under the Blocking and Screening Instructions (BSI) framework.