Understanding Personality Rights and Defamation in the Karan Johar and CarryMinati Case

Recently, a Mumbai court provided interim relief to filmmaker Karan Johar in a defamation lawsuit against YouTuber CarryMinati (Ajey Nagar) regarding a roast video titled Coffee with Jalan, which has since been removed. On February 9, the court issued a restraining order against Nagar, citing that the video, which parodied Karan’s show Koffee with Karan, had damaged his reputation.

Prior to this, in September 2025, the Delhi High Court had granted an interim injunction protecting Karan’s personality rights against unauthorized commercial exploitation.

Rakhee Bajpai Tiwari, Chief Legal Officer of Karan’s production company, Dharma Productions, explained, “The earlier action was a personality rights proceeding aimed at preventing unauthorized use of an individual’s name, image, and identity by unidentified parties. In contrast, the matter involving CarryMinati sought a specific injunction against defamatory content published by identified individuals. While parody and creative expression are important, they must respect legal boundaries and not infringe on others' rights. Content that goes beyond legal thresholds will be examined, and appropriate actions will follow if necessary.”