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Gautam Gambhir, who is the two-time ICC white-ball World Cup champion, Arjuna Awardee, Padma Shri recipient, former Member of Parliament, and Head Coach of the Indian Men's National Cricket Team has instituted a civil suit before the High Court of Delhi (C.S. (COMM.) of 2026) seeking comprehensive protection of his personality and publicity rights against a coordinated campaign of digital impersonation, AI-generated deepfakes, and unauthorised commercial exploitation.
Beginning in late 2025, Gambhir's legal team documented a sharp and alarming increase in fabricated digital content across Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), YouTube, and Facebook, according to a release. Multiple accounts deployed artificial intelligence, face-swapping, and voice-cloning technologies to create realistic videos falsely depicting Gambhir making statements he never made -- including a fraudulent "resignation announcement" that garnered over 29 lakh views, and a fabricated clip purporting to show him making remarks about senior cricketers' World Cup participation that drew over 17 lakh views. Beyond social media, major e-commerce platforms were facilitating the sale of posters and merchandise bearing his name and likeness without any authorisation. The suit is filed against 16 defendants including identified social media accounts (JanKey Frames, Bhupendra Paintola, Legends Revolution, gustakhedits, cricket_memer45, GemsOfCrickets, Crickaith, Sunny Upadhyay, @imRavY_), e-commerce platforms (Amazon, Flipkart), platform intermediaries (Meta Platforms Inc., X Corp., Google LLC / YouTube), and the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology and Department of Telecommunications as proforma parties to facilitate implementation of any court order. The suit invokes the Copyright Act 1957, Trade Marks Act 1999, and the Commercial Courts Act 2015, and draws upon a robust body of Delhi High Court jurisprudence -- including landmark rulings in Amitabh Bachchan v. Rajat Nagi, Anil Kapoor v. Simply Life India, and the recent Sunil Gavaskar v. Cricket Tak & Ors. -- that firmly establish personality rights as proprietary, enforceable rights extending to AI-driven exploitation. Damages of Rs. 2.5 crore have been claimed, alongside prayers for rendition of accounts, permanent injunction, and takedown of all infringing content. "My identity -- my name, my face, my voice -- has been weaponised by anonymous accounts to spread misinformation and generate revenue at my expense. This is not a matter of personal hurt; it is a matter of law, dignity, and the protection every public figure deserves in the age of artificial intelligence," Gautam Gambhir said. The suit seeks a permanent injunction restraining all defendants from using, reproducing, or exploiting Gambhir's name, image, voice, or persona -- including through AI, deepfake technology, morphing, and face-swapping -- without his express written consent. An urgent application for ex-parte ad-interim injunction has simultaneously been filed under Order XXXIX, Rules 1 & 2 CPC, requesting immediate takedown of all infringing content and a freeze on further dissemination pending final hearing. (ANI)
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