Shilpa Shetty Approaches Bombay High Court to Block Deepfakes and AI Voice Cloning

Bollywood actor Shilpa Shetty Kundra has approached the Bombay High Court, seeking to safeguard her personality and publicity rights, making her the latest celebrity to take legal action against unauthorized commercial exploitation of their identity.

Shilpa Shetty has filed a petition in the Bombay High Court to protect her fundamental rights, including her name, voice, image, likeness, signature, and all distinctive attributes associated with her public persona.

Shetty's petition names a wide range of defendants, including various businesses located across Mumbai, Bengaluru, Surat, and New Delhi, as well as Artificial Intelligence (AI) companies and social media platforms.

The plea highlights the unauthorized use of morphed and digitally manipulated images and deepfakes in videos, posters, books, and merchandise.

It specifically targets the use of AI to clone her voice, vocal style, and technique. The petition argues that the reproduction of her performance, name, and image in ways that bring her "disrepute" or make her the subject of "unsavoury humour" violates her moral rights.

Shetty seeks an order restraining the defendants from using her images and other attributes to pass off their goods and services as being endorsed by her. She demands that all infringing content be immediately taken down, removed, or blocked. She has sought Rs.5 lakh in damages from some of the named defendants.

Shetty joins a growing list of Indian celebrities, including Amitabh Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai, and Hrithik Roshan, who have taken similar steps to combat the unauthorized commercial use of their personality rights.