Delhi High Court protects ‘power star’ Pawan Kalyan’s personality rights

In the growing list of celebrities seeking personality right protection, the name of Telugu actor, also called as ‘Power Star’, who is also the current Deputy Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, has now been added, with the Delhi High Court granting interim protection in his favour.

Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora was hearing a plea filed by the actor-turned-politician, seeking protection of his personality and publicity rights against various individuals and entities alleged to have capitalised on the “enormous goodwill” associated with his name, image, likeness, and persona for commercial gain without seeking and obtaining his consent.

Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora directed the owners of Instagram fan pages of the actor to include a disclaimer in the profile stating that the accounts are fan pages. (Image is enhanced using AI)

“The balance of convenience lies in favour of the Plaintiff, and the continuing availability of the infringing content would cause irreparable injury to the Plaintiff. The Plaintiff has therefore made out a case for ex parte ad-interim injunction against the infringing Defendants,” the court said.

The court also emphasised and mentioned that there is no doubt that the actor is a known public figure.

“Apart from having a distinguished career in South Indian cinema, the Plaintiff is presently serving as the Deputy Chief Minister of the State of Andhra Pradesh,” the order read.

Since the identities of some of the individuals/entities were unknown, the court arrayed them as ‘Ashok Kumar/John Doe’ while the other entities that infringed the personality right of the actor included Flipkart, Amazon seller, Google LLC, Meesho, Meta, and others.

Justice Arora also noted that the politician has acquired significant commercial brand value in his name, image, voice, and likeness over more than three decades in cinema and public life.

The court, in its December 22, 2025, order, restrained several entities, their associates, servants, agents, from using or exploiting or misappropriating his personality/ publicity rights, which are exclusively identifiable with him for any commercial gain without his consent and authorisation, through the use of any mode of technology.

The court further restrained the entities from selling or facilitating the sale of merchandise, publishing, uploading any material infringing the actor’s personality rights, and directed them to take down the URLs specifically identified by him.

One of Kalyan’s representatives, senior advocate J Sai Deepak, placed on record that his client’s personality rights, including but not limited to the name ‘Pawan Kalyan’, his images, likeness, and persona, are instantly and exclusively associated with him by the general public.

It was further submitted that the actor is one of India’s most “prominent public figures”, an acclaimed film actor, producer, choreographer, philanthropist, and nationally recognised political leader.

It was placed on record that attributes of the actor’s personality included his name, titles such as ‘Konidala Pawan Kalyan’, ‘Pawan Kalyan’, ‘Power Star’, ‘PSPK’ and ‘PK’. (Image is enhanced using AI)

It was also submitted that the attributes of the actor’s personality including his name, titles such as ‘Konidala Pawan Kalyan’, ‘Pawan Kalyan’, ‘Power Star’, ‘PSPK’, ‘PK’, his likeness, image, photographs, voice, signature style, stature, screen persona, speeches, digital presence and all distinctive elements of his identity enjoy protection under multiple statutory, constitutional and common law frameworks.

Appearing for Meta, advocate Varun Pathak, argued regarding the “fan pages” of the actor, which have existed for a very long time on the social media platform, that instead of taking down the said profiles, the owners of the concerned Instagram profiles may be directed to add a disclaimer on the profile that it is a “fan account”.

The actor submitted that these Instagram accounts appear to impersonate him, but did not state that these accounts contain any derogatory content or misinformation.

The high court directed the owners of those Instagram accounts to specifically include a “disclaimer” on the profile description that it is a ‘fan account’ and held that no further takedown action was required against those accounts.

Pointing out that his client enjoys an “extraordinary digital footprint”, Deepak submitted that Pawan Kalyan has acted in over 25 commercially successful films, many of which attained “blockbuster” status and ranked among the highest-grossing Telugu-language films of all time.

The matter is listed to be heard on May 12.