Noted Bollywood singer Kumar Sanu has approached the Delhi High Court seeking an injunction to protect his “personality and publicity rights” against unauthorized use, particularly targeting Artificial Intelligence (AI) voice cloning and commercial exploitation.
Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora is expected to hear the plea on Monday, October 13.
In his comprehensive suit, Sanu, a recipient of the Padma Shri, has sought protection for all attributes of his public identity, including his name, voice, vocal style and technique, vocal arrangements and interpretations, mannerism and manner of singing, images, caricatures, photographs, likeness, and signature.
The core of the singer’s argument is that unauthorized and unlicensed commercial exploitation by third parties is not only generating revenue for the defendants but is also likely to cause “confusion or deception and dilution among the public.”
Aggrieved by AI Cloning and ‘Unsavoury Humour’
The legal challenge, filed through advocates Shikha Sachdeva and Sana Raees Khan, highlights two major areas of grievance:
- AI Misuse and Cloning: The plea specifically expresses Sanu’s distress over content created using Artificial Intelligence to clone his voice, vocal style, and technique, as well as morphing his face for the creation of merchandise and audios/videos.
- Moral Rights Violation: Sanu is also “aggrieved by various GIFs, and audio and video recordings containing his performances and voice” that, according to the plea, bring disrepute to him and make him a subject of “unsavoury humour.” This, the suit contends, violates his moral rights in his performances as conferred by the provisions of the Copyright Act.
The petition further argues that the defendants are generating significant revenue by streaming these unauthorized audios and videos on social networking websites like Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, which generate income based on clicks or views.
The suit asserts, “Such acts also amount to an attempt at false endorsements and passing off and hence must be restrained by an order of injunction by this court.”
Sanu’s move aligns him with other prominent Indian celebrities, including Amitabh Bachchan, Anil Kapoor, and Jackie Shroff, who have previously secured judicial protection for their personality rights in a growing legal push against the misuse of celebrity persona in the digital age.