Prakash Raj
Actor
Prolific South Indian and Bollywood character actor and one-time independent Lok Sabha candidate who flagged a viral AI-generated image of himself as fake and said he had filed a complaint against those spreading it.
In his words
FAKE NEWS ALERT … Complaint has been filed against the Jokers.
Biography
Prakash Raj (born 1965) is a National Award-winning actor with hundreds of credits across Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Hindi cinema, as well as an outspoken political voice who ran as an independent candidate for the Lok Sabha from Bangalore Central in 2019.
Calling out an AI fake
In January 2025, during the Maha Kumbh Mela in Prayagraj, an AI-generated image circulated falsely purporting to show Prakash Raj bathing in the river. Fact-checkers confirmed the picture was synthetic, flagging tell-tale distortions in the hands. Raj publicly denounced it as fake news and part of a coordinated disinformation effort, and said he had registered a formal complaint against those distributing it.
A frequent target of manufactured controversy because of his political outspokenness, Raj’s response typified a growing pattern: public figures using legal complaints and blunt rebuttals to counter AI-fabricated images deployed as propaganda. His stance here is defensive — treating the technology, in this instance, as a weapon aimed at him.
Where they stand in the war
Who backs them up
Sources & further reading
Canonical record: https://battlelines.ai/topic/prakash-raj