Republic and Times Now are trying to make a mockery of criminal justice system, say 38 Bollywood production houses

As a counter to the ‘Bollywood drugs mafia’ reportage being carried on Republic TV and Times Now, 38 production houses including the production houses of stars Aamir Khan, Sharukh Khan, and Salmaan Khan have filed a suit in the Delhi High Court seeking to curb the “irresponsible, derogatory and defamatory remarks” being made against the film industry.

The suit filed by major 34 production houses takes strong exception to channels using expressions such as “it is Bollywood where the dirt needs to be cleaned”, “This is the dirtiest industry in the country”, and “cocaine and LSD drenched Bollywood.”

The plaintiffs include the major production houses such as Yashraj Films, Nadiadwala, Excel, Vidhu Vinod Chopra films, Vishal Bharadwaj, Reliance Big etc.

The suit singles out Republic’s Arnab Goswami and Pradeep Bhandari and Times Now’s Rahul Shivshankar and Navika Kumar for “conducting media trials of Bollywood personalities and interfering with the right to privacy of persons associated with Bollywood.”

“The livelihood of persons associated with Bollywood is being severely impacted by the smear campaign being run by the Defendants. This is in addition to the ongoing pandemic which has resulted in extreme revenues and work opportunity loss. The privacy of the members of Bollywood is being invaded, and their reputations are being irreparably damaged by painting the entire Bollywood as criminals, seeped in drug culture, and making being part of Bollywood as synonymous with criminal acts in the public imagination,” reads the filed suit.

It further said: “These Defendants are conducting and publishing parallel private ‘investigations’ and effectively acting as “courts” to condemn persons connected with Bollywood as guilty based on what they claim is “evidence” found by them, thereby trying to make a mockery of the criminal justice system.”

The suit also noted that these news channels have been “openly flouting” the Programme Code framed under Section 5 of the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995 contained in Rule 6 of the Cable Television Network Rules, 1994.

The Film & Television Producers Guild of India (PGI) and Cine & TV Artistes Association (CINTAA) have also joined the suit.

Here’s the list of filmmakers and producers:

1) The Film &Television Producers Guild of India (PGI)

2) The Cine & TV Artiste? Association (CINTAA)

3) Indian Film and TV Producers Council (IFTPC)

4) Screenwriters Association (SWA)

5) Aamir Khan Productions

6) Ad-Labs Films

7) Ajay Devgn Fflims

8) Andolan Films

9) Anil Kapoor Film and Communication Network

10) Arbaaz Khan Productions

11) Ashutosh Gowariker Productions

12) BSK Network and Entertainment

13) Cape of Good Films

14) Clean Slate Filmz

15) Dharma Productions

16) Emmay Entertainment & Motion Pictures

17) Excel Entertainment

18) Filmkraft Productions

19) Hope Production

20) Kabir Khan Films

21) Luv Films

22) Macguffin Pictures

23) Nadiadwala Grandson Entertainment

24) One India Stories

25) R.S. Entertainment (Ramesh Sippy Entertainment)

26) Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra Pictures

27) Red Chillies Entertainment

28) Reel Life Productions

29) Reliance Big Entertainment

30) Rohit Shetty Picturez

31) Roy Kapur Films

32) Salman Khan Films

33) Sikhya Entertainment

34) Sohail Khan Productions

35) Tiger Baby Digital

36) Vinod Chopra Films

37) Vishal Bhardwaj Pictures

38) Yashraj Films