Delhi Court Issues Summons in Naga Chaitanya Deepfake Case

Telugu film actor Naga Chaitanya has filed a lawsuit in the Delhi High Court seeking legal protection against the alleged misuse of his identity online, including through AI-generated deepfake videos, defamatory content, and unauthorized commercial exploitation. The court has issued summons in the matter and indicated it will pass an interim order to protect the actor's personality rights, with the next hearing scheduled for September 30.

The actor's legal team, led by Senior Advocate Vaibhav Gaggar, argued that several websites and digital platforms are using his name, image, voice, and likeness without permission. The petition alleges that advanced technologies, including artificial intelligence tools, deepfake software, and voice-cloning, are being employed to create and circulate fabricated and misleading content for commercial gain. This includes attaching the actor's name to explicit search keywords and domain names to drive web traffic.

A significant portion of the hearing focused on content allegedly linking Chaitanya to his former wife, actor Samantha Ruth Prabhu. Gaggar told the court that videos and posts falsely portray the actor as having cheated on her and being...