Abstract
The rapid evolution of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and generative media presents an existential challenge to the Right to Live with Dignity, a fundamental right enshrined under article 21, 14 & 19of the constitution of India, rooted in the concepts of autonomy, self-determination, and the freedom from objectification. This paper undertakes a tripartite legal and ethical analysis of this challenge, examining the distinct, yet converging, threats posed by AI to the identities of Celebrities, Citizens, and the resulting Digital Persona.The paper argues that AI, particularly through deepfakes and advanced cloning, has created a regulatory vacuum by enabling the hyper-realistic, non-consensual exploitation of identity. For celebrities, the legal battle primarily centres on Personality Rights (Right of Publicity), where AI-driven fabrication of endorsements, voice-cloning, and performance replication threaten the commercial value and moral integrity of their persona. For instance in the landmark judgement of Anil Kapoor v. Simply life India & others (2023), the Delhi High Court issued a sweeping injunction restraining the unauthorised, AI driven use of Anil Kapoor’s name, image, & even signature gestures and voice, recognising the threats deep fake technologies posed to personality rights & personal dignity. For the citizens, as the Supreme Court of India powerfully articulated in K.S. Puttaswamy v. Union of India (2017), “Privacy, in its simplest sense, allows each human being to be left alone in a core which is inviolable”. This foundational principle becomes critically imperiled in the age of AI, where citizens face unprecedented threats to their constitutional right to privacy and dignity through AI-fueled surveillance, biometric data capture, algorithmic objectification, and the specter of non-consensual deepfake creation. Thus, the harm is more insidious, directly undermining their constitutional Right to Privacy and dignity through widespread, manipulative surveillance, biometric data exploitation, and the creation of intimate, fabricated content.
This analysis critiques the inadequacy of existing legal remedies relying on fragmented laws of defamation, passing off, and limited privacy statutes to address the speed, scale, and cross-jurisdictional nature of AI-generated harm. The article concludes by asserting that defending human dignity requires moving beyond siloed legal approaches (publicity vs. privacy) toward a unified, dignity-centric framework that imposes clear duties of care and mandatory transparency on AI developers and platforms, ensuring that the technology’s power is constrained by the intrinsic worth of the human subject.
Keywords: Right to Privacy, Artificial Intelligence, Personality Rights, Human Dignity, Digital Persona.
- Introduction
In September 2025, Bollywood icon Aishwarya Rai Bachchan walked into the Delhi High Court seeking protection from something that would have been unimaginable a decade agoexplicit deepfake videos of herself circulating on YouTube, complete with manipulated romantic scenarios and fabricated endorsements.[1]Her case represents more than celebrity grievance, it symbolises the collapse of the boundary between authentic human expression and artificial manipulation, threatening the very foundation of human dignity in the digital age.
This is not an isolated incident. Across India, ordinary citizens are falling victim to increasingly sophisticated AI-driven identity theft. A 57-year-old Bengaluru woman lost ₹3.75 crore to fraudsters using a deepfake video of spiritual leader Sadhguru endorsing fake investments.[2] In Kerala, a 73-year-old man was duped of ₹40,000 by a deepfake video call from someone appearing to be his former colleague.[3] Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman recently acknowledged encountering “several deepfake videos” of herself promoting fraudulent cryptocurrency schemes.[4]
These cases illuminate a disturbing reality: artificial intelligence has democratised identity theft, making anyone’s face, voice, and mannerisms exploitable commodities. With deepfake incidents in India surging by 280% between 2023 and 2024, and fraud attempts involving AI increasing by 2,137% over three years,[5]we face what may be the greatest technological threat to human autonomy since the advent of the internet.
This article examines how AI-driven identity manipulation threatens three interconnected spheres: celebrity personality rights, ordinary citizen privacy, and the emerging concept of digital personhood itself. It argues that India’s fragmented legal responsescattered across defamation, privacy, and cybercrime statutes, fails to address the fundamental constitutional challenge posed by synthetic media to human dignity.
[1]Aishwarya Rai Bachchan v AishwaryaWorld.com & Ors, Delhi High Court, CS(COMM) 956/2025 (9 September 2025).
[2]‘Bengaluru Woman Duped of ₹3.75 Crore in Deepfake Scam Using Fake Video of Sadhguru’ The Logical Indian (10 September 2025).
[3]‘Kerala man loses Rs 40,000 to AI-based Deepfake WhatsApp fraud’ India Today (16 July 2023).
[4]‘FM says several deepfake videos of her are circulating’ Economic Times (7 October 2025).
[5]‘Deepfake Statistics & Trends 2025’ KeepNet Labs (6 October 2025).