After Aishwarya Rai, Abhishek Bachchan, Karan Johar moves to Delhi HC to seek protection of his personality rights

Filmmaker Karan Johar has approached the Delhi High Court, asking for protection of his personality rights and an order to stop the unauthorised sale of merchandise using his name.

The move comes on the heels of a similar case involving Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai, where the court restrained multiple websites and online platforms from exploiting Abhishek’s name and images for profit without his consent. The court granted protection of personality rights to both Abhishek and Aishwarya.

In that matter, the court observed that key elements their identity, name, photographs, signatures were used on various platforms.

"These attributes are linked to the plaintiff's professional work and associations in the course of his career. The unauthorised use of such attributes has the effect of diluting the goodwill and reputation associated with him," Justice Tejas Karia said in his September 10 order.

In its interim order, while granting the protection of personality rights to Aishwarya, the court barred the defendants from producing, distributing, or selling items like T-shirts, mugs, posters, or digital material that exploit the actor’s name, image, or persona. The restriction also extends to AI-generated content, deepfakes, face morphing, or any other form of digital alteration that might harm or diminish her public reputation.

The court also found that Bachchan had made out a strong prima facie case for relief, adding that “the balance of convenience also tilts in his favour.”

On work front, Karan Johar's last directorial was 'Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani'. His next as a producer is 'Sunny Sanskari Ki Tulsi Kumari', which stars Varun Dhawan, Janhvi Kapoor, Sanya Malhotra and Rohit Saraf.