On 12 October, a civil suit was filed before the Delhi High Court by four Bollywood industry associations and 34 Bollywood producers against Republic TV, Arnab Goswami and Pradeep Bhandari (of Republic TV), Rahul Shivshankar and Navika Kumar (of Times Now) and unknown defendants as well as social media platforms to refrain from making or publishing irresponsible, derogatory and defamatory remarks against Bollywood.
Among the studios that have filed the petition are Shah Rukh Khan’s Red Chillies Entertainment, Salman Khan Films, Aamir Khan Productions, Ajay Devgn Films, Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions and Farhan Akhtar’s Excel Entertainment.
The petition urged that defamatory comments not be telecast against Bollywood celebrities and a restrain be imposed on conducting media trials on them or interfering with the right to privacy of actors and others associated with the film industry.
The petition also stated that the “defendants abide by the provisions of the Programme Code under the Cable Television Networks Rules, 1994, and to withdraw, recall and take down all the defamatory content published by them against Bollywood”.
This legal action comes in the wake of these news channels using derogatory words for Bollywood such as “dirt, filth, scum, druggies”, and expressions such as “it is Bollywood where the dirt needs to be cleaned”, “all the perfumes of Arabia cannot take away the stench and the stink of this filth and scum of the underbelly of Bollywood”, “this is the dirtiest industry in the country”, and “cocaine and LSD drenched Bollywood”, as per a report by Bar and Bench.
Here’s a complete list of the plaintiffs that have filed the suit.
- The Producers Guild of India
- The Cine & TV Artiste Association
- The Film and TV Producers Council
- Screenwriters Association
- Aamir Khan Productions
- Ad-Labs Films
- Ajay Devgn Fflims
- Andolan Films
- Anil Kapoor Film and Communication Network
- Arbaaz Khan Productions
- Ashutosh Gowarikaer Productions
- BSK Network and Entertainment
- Cape of Good Films
- Clean Slate Filmz
- Dharma Productions
- Emmay Entertainment & Motion Pictures
- Excel Entertainment
- Filmkraft Productions
- Hope Production
- Kabir Khan Films
- Luv Films
- Macguffin Pictures
- Nadiadwala Grandson Entertainment
- One India Stories
- R.S. Entertainment
- Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra Pictures
- Red Chillies Entertainment
- Reliance Big Entertainment
- Reel Life Productions
- Rohit Shetty Pictures
- Roy Kapur Productions
- Salman Khan Ventures
- Sohail Khan Productions
- Sikhya Entertianment
- Tiger Baby Digital
- Vinod Chopra Films
- Vishal Bhardwaj Film
- YashRaj Films
Source: Quint
