Rupali Ganguly seeks legal protection against AI misuse of her identity. Photo: PTI

Actor Rupali Ganguly approaches Bombay High Court to protect personality rights

Rupali Ganguly has moved the Bombay High Court against alleged unauthorised exploitation of her identity. Her suit seeks protection from commercial misuse, digital manipulation and AI-generated content.

by · India Today

In Short

  • Justice Rajesh S Patil granted leave to institute the suit
  • The petition names 18 defendants, including Reddit, Google and SeaArt AI
  • Alleged misuse involves merchandise, fraudulent bookings, GIFs and generated content

Television actor Rupali Ganguly has approached the Bombay High Court seeking protection of her personality, publicity and moral rights against alleged unauthorised commercial exploitation and digital misappropriation.

The petition follows an order passed by Justice Rajesh S Patil, granting her leave under Clause XII of the Letters Patent to institute the suit.

Represented by advocate Sana Raees Khan, the Anupamaa actor has named 18 defendants, including e-commerce platforms, fake event-booking portals, Reddit, SeaArt AI, Google LLC, Central government ministries and unidentified 'John Does'.

The actor alleges that several entities have been exploiting her identity without authorisation through e-commerce products, fraudulent booking listings and generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools.

According to the petition, the suit has been filed "in order to protect and safeguard her personality/publicity rights, moral rights and other statutory rights which include the Petitioner's name, voice, image, likeness, signature and all other attributes of her personality which are distinctive and exclusively associated with her from unauthorised use, infringement, passing off and commercial exploitation by the Respondents herein".

The plea further states that her right to privacy and dignity has been compromised through digital manipulation. It alleges that the defendants, without her consent, are using her image, persona and likeness for commercial gain through Graphic Interchange Formats (GIFs) and AI-generated content across websites and social media platforms.

Ganguly has sought comprehensive declaratory and injunctive reliefs, dynamic blocking orders against infringing mirror links, the removal and delivery-up of infringing merchandise, and token damages of Rs 5 lakh.

- Ends