Bachchans Seek ₹4 Crore in Damages from Google Over Deepfake Videos

Bollywood power couple Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Abhishek Bachchan have launched a high-stakes legal battle against Google, seeking Rs 4 crore ($450,000) in damages for alleged violations of their personality rights through AI-generated videos on YouTube. The lawsuits, filed on September 6, 2025, in the Delhi High Court, accuse the platform of hosting "egregious" and "sexually explicit" deepfake content that misrepresents the actors, potentially training other AI models to amplify misleading narratives.

The Bachchans, iconic figures in Indian cinema, are not just targeting YouTube’s content but its policies, demanding safeguards to prevent user-uploaded videos from being used to train rival AI platforms like OpenAI, Meta, or xAI. Their 1,500-page filings highlight hundreds of offending clips, including an AI-manipulated video of Abhishek kissing a film actress, a fictional scene of Aishwarya dining with ex-partner Salman Khan while Abhishek fumes, and even a bizarre depiction of a crocodile chasing him. The court has already ordered the removal of 518 specific links, citing financial harm and damage to the couple’s dignity.

India, YouTube’s largest market with 600 million users, has become a hotbed for Bollywood-centric AI content, with channels like “AI Bollywood Ishq” racking up millions of views for AI-generated “love stories.” One such video, viewed 4.1 million times, shows Aishwarya and Khan in a pool, created using text prompts via X’s Grok AI and China’s MiniMax Hailuo AI. The Bachchans argue that YouTube’s opt-in policy, allowing creators to share videos for third-party AI training, risks perpetuating false portrayals that could “multiply” across platforms, embedding biased or harmful content into AI models.

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This case marks a bold escalation in India’s nascent fight for personality rights, a concept not explicitly protected under Indian law but increasingly recognized by courts. In 2023, actor Anil Kapoor won a landmark ruling against misuse of his image and voice. The Bachchans’ lawsuits also target lesser-known vendors selling unauthorized merchandise like posters and fake autographed photos, but their primary focus is YouTube’s role in enabling AI-driven exploitation. Legal experts, like Eashan Ghosh of National Law University Delhi, suggest courts may push YouTube to tighten user policies or prioritize celebrity complaints, though direct liability could be hard to prove.

The broader implications are seismic for India’s entertainment industry, where generative AI is reshaping content creation. YouTube, which paid Indian creators over $2.4 billion in the last three years, faces scrutiny for monetizing infringing videos. The Bachchans’ filings warn that unchecked AI training could “learn untrue information,” spreading defamatory content exponentially. As the Delhi High Court awaits Google’s written response by January 15, 2026, the case underscores the urgent need for legal frameworks to protect public figures in the AI era.

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