There’s a horror in watching yourself do something you never did.
Imagine opening your phone and seeing a video of your face, your voice — perfectly lifelike — endorsing a political message you don’t believe in. Laughing in a context you weren’t part of. Performing in a film you never shot. And knowing: it isn’t you.
For Bollywood celebrities, who’ve spent decades building public personas with discipline, intent, and artistry, AI has become the great equaliser — not in a good way, but in a devastating one. It doesn’t matter how iconic you are or how fiercely you guard your brand. If someone wants to borrow your face, your voice, your smile, your signature flick of the eyebrow — they can. And they don’t even need to ask.
Deepfake culture has turned identity into a drag-and-drop asset. And the law? It’s playing catch-up at best, asleep at worst.
Recently, a wave of Bollywood stars — Anil Kapoor, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, Jackie Shroff — have taken legal action to reclaim what should’ve never been up for grabs: themselves. They’re filing for injunctions, pleading with the courts to protect their names, voices, and faces from misuse by AI tools, content farms, and digital opportunists. Not for vanity. Merely for basic existentialism.
Because, this is not just about fake ads or prank videos. It is about trust. About power. About losing ownership of your own identity.
The threat here isn’t just reputational damage — though that’s severe enough. It’s philosophical. If your image can be extracted, edited, sold, and reshaped by someone else’s software, what are you really in control of anymore?
And no, this isn’t a “celebrity problem.” Celebrities are simply the canaries in the coal mine. They’re the first to feel the heat because they’re visible. But the same technology that fakes a film star’s face today will forge your neighbour’s tomorrow — and your child’s the day after that.
We’re heading into an era where reality itself is negotiable. Where every photo, every video, every “proof” can be doubted. In that world, personality rights are not just legal technicalities — they are the last defence against chaos.
Bollywood is waking up. The courts are stirring. But the storm is already here. And if we don’t redraw the lines now — sharply, unapologetically — we may soon live in a world where your identity is no longer your own.
And the worst part? It’ll still look like you.
