Television actor Rupali Ganguly has approached the Bombay High Court seeking protection of her personality, publicity and moral rights against alleged unauthorised commercial use and digital misuse of her identity.
The petition follows an order passed by Justice Rajesh S Patil, granting her permission under Clause XII of the Letters Patent to file the suit.
Represented by advocate Sana Raees Khan, the Anupamaa actor has named 18 defendants, including e-commerce platforms, fraudulent event-booking websites, Reddit, SeaArt AI, Google LLC, Central government ministries and unidentified individuals referred to as 'John Does'.
Ganguly has alleged that several entities have been using her identity without permission through online merchandise, fake event-booking listings and generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools.
According to the petition, the suit has been filed "in order to protect and safeguard her personality/publicity rights, moral rights and other statutory rights which include the Petitioner's name, voice, image, likeness, signature and all other attributes of her personality which are distinctive and exclusively associated with her from unauthorised use, infringement, passing off and commercial exploitation by the Respondents herein".
The plea further claims that her privacy and dignity have been affected by digital manipulation. It alleges that the defendants are using her photographs, identity and likeness without consent to generate commercial benefits through Graphic Interchange Formats (GIFs) and AI-generated content circulated across websites and social media platforms.
Ganguly has sought comprehensive declaratory and injunctive reliefs to prevent such alleged misuse. Her demands include dynamic blocking orders against infringing mirror links, removal and handover of unauthorised merchandise, and token damages of Rs 5 lakh.
