Bollywood actors Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan have gone to the Delhi High Court to ask for quick protection of their voice, image, and personality in the age of AI. Their main target in the complaint is YouTube, which is owned by Google. They say that the site hosts and spreads deceptive and “egregious” AI-generated films.
The couple’s petitions, which were filed on September 6 and are over 1,500 pages long, seek the court to not only remove deepfake and libelous information, but also to tell YouTube to stop using these films to train other AI platforms like OpenAI, Meta, or xAI.
According to court documents that Reuters has examined, the Bachchans say that YouTube’s policies on sharing data and training AI models let creators agree to let third-party AI models use their films. They say this might make misleading and harmful content proliferate even more, which would hurt their reputation.
“Egregious” AI Videos Aimed at the Bachchans
The complaints list hundreds of links to YouTube videos that are said to show sexual situations that have been changed or made up. Some of them are:
A video of Abhishek kissing an actress in a digital way.
A video of Aishwarya and Salman Khan eating while Abhishek gets angry in the background.
A strange deepfake shows a crocodile stalking Abhishek while Khan tries to save him.
The High Court has already instructed 518 of these links to be taken down because they hurt the couple’s reputation, finances, and goodwill. Reuters reported that comparable movies are still available online, including ones from the popular channel AI Bollywood Ishq, which has uploaded more than 250 AI-generated Bollywood “love stories” that have been watched more than 16.5 million times.
Looking for Damages and Better Protection
The Bachchans want ₹4 crore ($450,000) in damages and a permanent ban on this kind of exploitation. They also want YouTube to change its user restrictions to make them tighter and make sure that celebrity claimants get their money back faster.
But lawyers say the case might be hard. Eashan Ghosh, an IP law expert at National Law University in Delhi, said, “Actors will have a hard time making a direct case against YouTube because their problems are with creators.” “But courts may force YouTube to change its rules or make it easier for celebrities to get help.”
More and more lawsuits are happening over personality rights.
There aren’t clear rules in India that protect “personality rights,” like there are in some U.S. states. However, courts have been siding with famous people more and more. Actor Anil Kapoor was able to stop others from using his image, voice, and characteristic catchphrases without his permission in 2023.
The Bachchans’ lawsuit, on the other hand, is the most famous fight thus far between Bollywood, AI, and Big Tech. It shows that people are more worried than ever about how AI deepfakes will change entertainment, reputation, and intellectual property rights.
YouTube still claims to be the most popular platform in India, where it has 600 million subscribers. This makes India the platform’s biggest global market. In May, YouTube said that it has compensated Indian producers more than $2.4 billion in just three years.
But if AI-made “Bollywood love stories” get millions of views, the Bachchans’ lawsuit could set a new standard for how Indian courts handle creativity, technology, and celebrity rights.