After being granted protection of their personality and publicity rights, Bollywood actors Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan have filed separate lawsuits in the Delhi High Court against YouTube and its parent company Google. According to court filings as reported by Reuters, the star couple is seeking $450,000 (approximately Rs 4 crore) in damages, along with a permanent injunction to stop YouTube from hosting or monetising any content that misrepresents them or misuses their voices, likeness, and images in AI-generated deepfake videos.
AI training and misuse of content
The petitions also urge the court to direct Google to implement safeguards to prevent manipulated content from being used to train other artificial intelligence (AI) platforms. As reported by the agency, the actors said in their September 6 filing, “Such content being used to train AI models has the potential to multiply the instances of infringing use – first being uploaded on YouTube and viewed by the public, and then also being exploited for AI training.”
“Egregious” and “sexually explicit” AI content
The 1,500 pages lawsuit was reportedly targeting little-known sellers for unauthorised physical merchandise like posters, coffee mugs and stickers with their photos, and even fake autographed pictures. The document also contains ‘hundreds of links and screenshots’ of what is alleged as YouTube videos showing “egregious”, “sexually explicit” or “fictitious” AI content.Reuters states in its report that they found videos of ‘Abhishek suddenly kissing a film actress using AI manipulation’. Another video was an AI depiction of Aishwarya and her former co-star Salman Khan seemingly enjoying a meal together while Abhishek fumes standing behind. The videos have also made their way onto other social media platforms. Those keeping up with Bollywood columns will know of Aishwarya’s past relationship with Salman, long before her marriage to Abhishek. The report also notes that a YouTube channel titled “AI Bollywood Ishq” shares “AI-generated Bollywood love stories”. Its 259 videos have garnered 16.5 million views, with the video of Salman and Aishwarya in a pool, raking in 4.1 million views.
Court asks lawyers to respond
The Delhi High Court, which heard the matter last month, directed Google’s legal counsel to file written responses. The case is scheduled for the next hearing on January 15, 2026.
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