Actor Suniel Shetty has moved the Bombay High Court seeking protection of his personality rights, claiming that several social media pages and websites were using his photographs to promote their business without any authorisation. The actor, in an interim application, sought the court to order all such websites to immediately remove his photographs and restrain them from using the same in future.
Suniel Shetty seeks protection of personality rights
A bench of Justice Arif Doctor on Friday briefly heard Shetty`s counsel Birendra Saraf and reserved its order on the plea. Saraf pointed out that fake images of Shetty and his grandchild were on some websites. The plea claimed that the actor`s photos were being used commercially without any authorisation.
“Bollywood actor Suniel Shetty moves the Bombay High Court for protection of his personality rights. The actor has stated that many social media pages and websites use his image to promote their business. The actor also cited an instance of a deep fake picture with his grandchild,” Bar and Bench stated.
Saraf submitted that the website of a real estate agency and a gambling site have displayed the actor`s photo even though he is not associated with them. The actor, in the plea, claimed that he had a right over his personality and photos, and passing them off without authority was damaging his reputation.
Other celebs who opted for personality rights
In recent times, several celebrities, including Aishwarya Rai, Abhishek Bachchan, Amitabh Bachchan, Karan Johar and Akkineni Nagarjuna, also moved court to seek protection of their personality rights. Earlier this month, the Bombay High Court issued an order protecting the unauthorised use of veteran playback singer Asha Bhosle’s personality rights.
“Personality Rights of individuals, simply put, entail the right to control and protect the exploitation of one’s image, name, likeness or other attributes of the individuals’ personality, in addition to the commercial gains that can be derived from the same. Personality Rights can be located in the individuals’ autonomy to permit or deny the exploitation of the likeness of other attributes of their personality,” the Delhi High Court said while protecting Aishwarya’s rights.
On the work front, Shetty will next be seen in Hera Pheri 3 with Akshay Kumar and Paresh Rawal. He is also a part of Welcome To The Jungle which has an ensemble cast.
