Indian men’s team coach Gautam Gambhir moved the Delhi High Court seeking protection of personality rights, claiming Rs 2.5 crore damages for alleged misuse of his name, images, AI videos, deepfakes, and seeking removal of infringing online content.
NEW DELHI: Indian men’s team coach Gautam Gambhir has approached the Delhi High Court seeking protection for his personality and publicity rights.
He is claiming damages of Rs 2.5 crore from parties accused of exploiting his name and images to sell merchandise, and from those alleged to have used Artificial Intelligence (AI) videos and deepfakes to spread false information. He has also sought orders directing the removal of such infringing content.
Gambhir joins a growing list of public figures including Bollywood actors and fellow cricketers who have lodged similar petitions in the High Court.
A press statement accompanying the filing alleges a coordinated campaign of digital impersonation, AI-generated deepfakes, and unauthorised commercial use of Gambhir’s persona. According to the release, from 2025 onwards his legal team recorded a marked rise in fabricated digital content across Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), YouTube and Facebook.
Multiple accounts are said to have used AI, face‑swapping and voice‑cloning tools to produce convincing videos falsely showing Gambhir making statements he never made including a bogus “resignation announcement” that reportedly attracted more than 29 lakh views. The statement also claims that major e‑commerce platforms have been allowing the sale of posters and merchandise bearing his name and likeness without permission.
The suit names 16 defendants, including several identified social media accounts (JanKey Frames, Bhupendra Paintola, Legends Revolution, gustakhedits, cricket_memer45, GemsOfCrickets, Crickaith, Sunny Upadhyay, @imRavY_), e‑commerce sites (Amazon, Flipkart), intermediary platforms (Meta Platforms Inc., X Corp., Google LLC / YouTube), and the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology and Department of Telecommunications as proforma parties to help implement any court orders.
The petition invokes the Copyright Act, 1957; the Trade Marks Act, 1999; the Commercial Courts Act, 2015; and relies on the High Court’s earlier personality‑rights decisions involving Amitabh Bachchan, Anil Kapoor and Sunil Gavaskar. Alongside the Rs 2.5 crore claim, Gambhir seeks rendition of accounts, a permanent injunction and takedown of all infringing content.
The suit has been filed through advocate Jai Anant Dehadrai.
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