Delhi High Court: In an application filed under Order 39, Rules 1 and 2 of the Civil Procedure Code, 1908, by the popular actor Akkineni Nagarjuna for protection of his personality rights, the Single Judge Bench of Tejas Karia, J, held that the unauthorised use of the actor’s name, image and persona constituted an infringement of his Personality Rights. Thus, the Court granted interim injunction in favour of Akkineni Nagarjuna and directed blocking and disabling of all infringing websites and disseminating content that violated his Personality Rights.
Background
The plaintiff, Nagarjuna is a respected actor producer, entrepreneur and a revered veteran of the Indian film industry, having featured in over 95 feature films. His contributions have earned him numerous accolades making him one of the most decorated and celebrated actors in the South Indian cinema.
The plaintiff has established exceptional goodwill and reputation in the realm of Indian cinema through his remarkable contributions and achievements. With a career spanning several decades, his consistent dedication to his craft, versatile acting skills, and charismatic on-screen presence have garnered him immense respect and admiration within the industry and amongst the members of the public.
The plaintiff is a person of celebrity status and possesses Personality / Publicity Rights over all facets of his persona. The plaintiff has the exclusive rights to control the use of his name, likeness, image, persona, voice, mannerisms, gestures and other uniquely identifiable characteristics
Defendants 1 to 10 and 14 to 16 are websites and Domain Name Registrars (DNRs) that are unauthorizedly using the plaintiff’s name in relation to pornographic content hosted by them.
Defendants 11 and 12 are websites that unauthorizedly sell t-shirts bearing the plaintiff’s name, image or photograph displayed in a prominent manner.
Defendant 18 and 19 are the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (‘MEIT’) and the Department of Telecommunication (‘DoT’), respectively.
Analysis, Law and Decision
The Court referred to the cases of Amitabh Bachchan v. Rajat Nagi, (2022) 6 HCC (Del) 641 and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan v. Aishwaryaworld.com, 2025 SCC OnLine Del 5943, wherein the Court had granted injunction to the celebrities aggrieved by violation of their Personality Rights.
In light of the same, the Court noted that the exploitation of one’s Personality Rights puts at risk not only their economic interests but also their right to live with dignity, potentially causing immeasurable harm to their reputation and goodwill as the adoption of the attributes such as name, image, likeness unauthorizedly would inevitably cause confusion in the minds of the members of the public regarding association with or endorsement by the plaintiff.
Thus, the Court held that prima facie, the attributes of the plaintiff’s persona, including his name and images were being unauthorizedly being misused by Defendants 1 to 13 which is causing grave prejudice to the plaintiff.
Accordingly, the Court directed Defendants 1 to 13 to disable and lock the impugned websites and domain names and take down any disparaging content posted on their respective webpages. They were further restrained from publishing any material which infringes the Personality Rights of the plaintiff as well as from selling or facilitating sale of merchandise which infringes the Personality Rights of the plaintiff.
The Court also directed MEIT and DoT to issue necessary directions to block and disable all URLs associated with the defendants within 7 days from receipt of notice.
The matter was further listed for hearing on 23-1-2026.
[Akkineni Nagarjuna v. Bfxxx.org, C.S. (COMM) No. 1023 of 2025, decided on 25-9-2025]
Advocates who appeared in this case:
For the Plaintiff: Vaibhav Gaggar, Senior Advocate, Pravin Anand, Vaishali R. Mittal, Vibhav Mithal, Shivang Sharma, Somdev Tiwari, Abhishek Nair, Vansh Shrivastav, Advocates
For the Respondent: Yash Raj, Advocate
