From Salman Khan To Shashi Tharoor: Why Big Names Are Rushing To Protect Personality Rites And What Does It Mean?

SHASHI THAROOR PERSONALITY RIGHTS: Congress party leader Shashi Tharoor filed an application in the Delhi High Court claiming that his personality rights were violated. The case for Shashi Tharoor is scheduled to be heard on Friday by Justice Mini Pushkarna. As per the record of the court, he has mentioned various names of the persons who are accused in this matter. The term used here “John Doe” refers to a legal term where the name of the person who is unknown is kept as John Doe. There is no information about the type of relief claimed by Shashi Tharoor, but it can be said that now he has become part of a long list of politicians, actors, social influencers and public figures.

Who are the celebrities whose personality rights are protected?

Off late, there has been an exponential increase in personality rights litigation in the Delhi High Court owing to the increasing prevalence of AI content, deepfakes, online impersonations, and unauthorised endorsements. 

In some instances, the Delhi High Court has upheld personality rights for the likes of Aman Gupta, entrepreneur; Allu Arjun, Telugu film actor; Mohanlal, Malayalam film actor; Aniruddhacharya, spiritual preacher; Jubin Nautiyal, singer; Pawan Kalyan, Deputy Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh; Sunil Gavaskar, former cricketer; Kajol Devgan, R Madhavan, and N. T. Rama Rao Jr., actors; and Bollywood actor Salman Khan.

Additionally, coordinate benches of the Delhi High Court have issued orders in favour of personality rights for Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, a spiritual preacher; Nagarjuna, Telugu film actor; Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Abhishek Bachchan, Bollywood actors; and filmmaker Karan Johar. 

What are personality rights?

Protection of personality rights provides individuals with legal protection regarding their personality elements that include their name, voice, images, etc., from any form of exploitation for commercial purposes. Protection of personality rights basically means that individuals can have control over their personal identity and ensure no misuse of that.

What happens when your personality rights are protected? 

When individuals enjoy the protection of their personality rights, they can gain full control of their personality elements and ensure that there is no form of commercial exploitation against them.

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