Bollywood drugs case: Delhi HC to hear filmmakers’ plea against media trial today

The petition has drawn the court’s attention to derogatory words and expressions used by certain news channels to describe Bollywood, such as “dirt”, “filth”, “scum”, and “druggies”

The Delhi high court (HC) on Monday will hear a plea by leading filmmakers against “media trial of Bollywood personalities”, who have been dubbed as “as criminals” by two TV news channels, and have sought action in a fresh fallout of the Central agencies’ probe into actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death case.

Delhi high court. (HT Archive)

Justice Rajiv Shakdher will hear the plea filed by 34 leading Bollywood producers and four industry associations.

The petitioners have sought the HC’s directions against the two TV news channels—Republic TV and Times Now—and their editors and other journalists.

The plea has sought editors and journalists of these TV news channels to refrain from making irresponsible, derogatory and defamatory remarks against Bollywood personalities and those who are associated with the industry.

The plea, filed through DSK Legal, also sought directions to various social media platforms to restrain them from publishing the remarks of these editors and journalists.

The petition has drawn the court’s attention to the derogatory words and expressions put out by the channels to describe Bollywood such as “dirt”, “filth”, “scum”, and “druggies”.

Besides, it has taken exception to sweeping statements 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 (lysergic acid diethylamide) drenched Bollywood”.

The plea has argued that Bollywood is known for its distinct and well-recognised class, is a huge source of revenue for the public exchequer, including foreign exchange, creates thousands of jobs and various other industries are also dependent on it.

“Bollywood is unique and stands on a different footing from any other industry. It is dependent almost solely on goodwill, appreciation and acceptance of its audience. 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 coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic, which has resulted in extreme revenues and work opportunity loss. The privacy of the members of Bollywood is being invaded. Their reputations are being irreparably damaged by painting the entire Bollywood as criminals, seeped in drug culture, and being part of the industry synonymous with criminal acts in the public imagination,” the plea has stated.

“They [the channels] are targeting specific individuals with the malicious intention of damaging their reputation in the eyes of the public, invading the private lives of various persons in the industry and dragging their personal lives into the public domain, and trying to show it in a completely false light across the board,” it has said.

“By their words, actions and publications the defendants are adversely impacting the right to a fair trial in these cases where several persons from Bollywood may be called as witnesses and some may even be prosecuted as accused,” it has added.

The petitioners included production houses owned by actors such as Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan, Salman Khan, Akshay Kumar, Ajay Devgn, Anil Kapoor, and directors Farhan Akhtar, Karan Johar, Rohit Shetty, Vinod Chopra, and Ashutosh Gowarikar.

The petitioners sought directions against Republic TV, its editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami and consulting editor Pradeep Bhandari; Times Now, its editor-in-chief Rahul Shivshankar, and group editor Navika Kumar along with various social media platforms.

Earlier, Shivshankar and Kumar had said they did nothing wrong.

“Cases against journalists of Times Now that have only sought justice for those who are wronged are a bad precedent...,” Shivshankar had tweeted.

“If fighting for justice invites court cases, bring it on... Let the truth prevail,” Kumar had tweeted on October 12.

The plea ha said a perusal of various articles online reflected that the defendants were publishing and circulating false, disparaging and malicious allegations against Bollywood actors.

“The words used, remarks made, as well as the essence of the assertions and allegations made by the defendants against the plaintiff, include without limitation…. “cocaine and LSD drenched Bollywood”, “your consumption is the reason that Pakistan is carrying out narco-terrorism operations enabling asymmetric warfare on our country”, the open secret in Bollywood of money that comes from the underworld to finance movies, you’ve seen stars all through the 80s and 90s and these stars going to Dubai, dancing in parties held by (gangster) Dawood Ibrahim, heard of stars being booked for collaborating with the underworld and going to jail, you’ve heard of contract killing being ordered by the underworld against other competitors of a certain group of people,” are excerpts of the false, disparaging and malicious allegations against Bollywood actors cited in the plea.

The petition has said that various articles, videos and broadcasts made it evident that the defendants were “deliberately inciting anger and hatred in the general public for persons associated with Bollywood, which can endanger their safety as several of them are well known and easily identified and may be subjected to violent reactions in public places”.

It has also said that the actions of the channels and their anchors and reporters were “systematically destroying the goodwill that many personalities in the industry have spent years building and would tantamount to wanton and illegal destruction of the most valuable asset of the business”.

The plea has pointed out that the privacy of persons associated with Bollywood was being infringed daily. Private “facts” about lives of personalities were being dragged into the public domain and their private communication, including WhatsApp messages, were being illegally accessed and published in the public domain without authorisation, it has added.

The Film & Television Producers Guild Of India (PGI), The Cine & TV Artistes’ Association (CINTAA), Indian Film and TV Producers Council (IFTPC), Screenwriters Association (SWA), Aamir Khan Productions, Ad-Labs Films, Ajay Devgn Fflims, Andolan Films, Anil Kapoor Film and Communication Network, Arbaaz Khan Productions, Ashutosh Gowariker 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 (Ramesh Sippy Entertainment),Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra Pictures, Red Chillies Entertainment, Reel Life Productions, Reliance Big Entertainment, Rohit Shetty Picturez, Roy Kapur Films, Salman Khan Films, Sikhya Entertainment, Sohail Khan Productions, Tiger Baby Digital, Vinod Chopra Films, Vishal Bhardwaj Pictures and Yashraj Films are the four industry associations and 34 leading Bollywood producers, respectively, who have moved the HC.