Leading producers and actors of the film industry have filed a lawsuit in the Delhi High Court against ‘irresponsible reporting by certain media houses’ amidst the Sushant Singh Rajput death case.
Some of the leading producers and actors of such as producers Aditya Chopra, Karan Johar, actor-producer Farhan Akhtar, Akshay Kumar, Ajay Devgn, Aamir Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan have come together to file the law suit against Republic and Times Now. The plaintiffs also include four film industry associations and The Producers Guild of India and 34 producers.
The lawsuit names Republic TV Arnab Goswami and Pradeep Bhandari and Times Now Navika Kumar and Rahul Shivshankar.
The lawsuit points out the channels used “highly derogatory words and expressions for Bollywood”which includes terms like ‘dirt’, ‘filth’, ‘scum’ and ‘druggies’ and expressions like ‘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.’
In the lawsuit the plaintiffs have asked channels as well as social media platforms to ‘refrain from making or publishing irresponsible, derogatory and defamatory remarks against Bollywood and its members.’ They want channels to not infringe on the privacy of the films industry members and from carrying out media trials.
The industry has come under scanner since the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput on June 14 and the subsequent drug probe case in which actors like Deepika Padukone, Shraddha Kapoor, Sara Ali Khan and others have been questioned by Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB).
While the producers and industry members in the lawsuit are ‘not seeking a blanket gag order’ on media reporting, they only want the court to stop reportage that violates the law.
Times Now Editor-in-Chief Rahul Shivshankar said cases against his channel’s journalists were “bad precedent”.
“Cases against journalists of Times Now that have only sought justice for those who are wronged are a bad precedent. The mighty may think they can weaken the resolve of the fearless but they are wrong,” he tweeted.
Reacting to this lawsuit, Navika Kumar, Group Editor of Times Now tweeted: “If fighting for justice invites court cases, bring it on. All the a-listers can come together but India will continue to fight for the truth. You can’t intimidate us @TimesNow & can’t take away the viewers who believe in us. Let Truth prevail. @aamir_khan,@iamsrk,@karanjohar.”