India’s most recognisable faces are discovering that stardom, once a source of effortless influence, now demands a new kind of vigilance. The rise of artificial intelligence has made it alarmingly easy to copy a voice, fabricate a video or splice a photograph into a persuasive but false reality. For public figures whose identities are their currency, the threat is not merely reputational ~ it is existential. At the heart of this battle lies the concept of personality rights.

These rights recognise an individual’s exclusive claim over their name, image, voice and distinctive gestures or catchphrases. They allow a person to decide when and how their persona may be used for commercial gain. In practice, that means a brand can hire a star for an endorsement, but no one can legally paste the star’s face on a product or create a fake video without consent. The principle is straightforward; the enforcement is anything but. Unlike jurisdictions such as California or Germany,........

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