After months of rigorous reporting on Bollywood and all the allegations made against those who are part of it, by the leading news channels of the country, a number of producers and filmmakers have come together to stand their ground.
The likes of Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan and Aamir Khan have joined forces with 35 other leading names of the film industry, filing a defamation suit in Delhi High Court – against leading news channels like, Republic TV and Times Now, for allegedly maligning the name of the industry through their reporting.
Republic TV’s editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami, and the network’s journalist Pradeep Bhandari have been named in the suit, along with Times Now’s Rahul Shivshankar and Navika Kumar.
[BREAKING] Suit has been filed before Delhi High Court by four Bollywood industry Assns & 34 leading Bollywood producers AGAINST
Republic TV
Arnab Goswami
Pradeep Bhandari
Times Now
Rahul Shivshankar
Navika Kumar @navikakumar @pradip103 @RShivshankar #ArnabGoswami pic.twitter.com/NXAP4w1Uvp— Bar & Bench (@barandbench) October 12, 2020
The suit further alleges that derogatory terms like “dirt”, “filth”, “scum”, “druggies” – were used to defame the industry, while reporting the ongoing investigations by the Narcotics Bureau – which embroiled a number of industry big-shots, like Deepika Padukone and Sara Ali Khan.
The statement further reads:
“The livelihood of persons associated with Bollywood was 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 works 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.”
The 38 plaintiffs who are behind the suit are named below:
Here’s a full list of plaintiffs:
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
The suit has stated that – “the livelihood of persons associated with Bollywood is being severely impacted by the smear campaign being run by the defendants.”
Would be interesting to see how this boils down, considering the involvement of such big shots.