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