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Can the movie title be changed? SC poser to ‘Gangubai Kathiawadi’ makers
The matter has been kept on Thursday after director Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s lawyer indicated that changing the title of the movie ‘Gangubai Kathiawadi’ was out of question with just a day remaining for its release .
NEW DELHI: The Alia Bhatt-starrer Bollywood flick ‘Gangubai Kathiawadi’ faced some teething issues in the Supreme Court prior to its Friday release with the judges taking up a plea to stay the movie and putting director Sanjay Leela Bhansali in spot by asking whether there can be a last-minute change in the movie title.
The matter has been kept on Thursday after Bhansali’s lawyer senior advocate Siddharth Dave indicated that this option was out of question with just a day remaining for its release. The Court was hearing an appeal filed by one Babu Rawji Shah, claiming to be Gangubai’s adopted son who approached the Bombay high court to stay the movie’s release. The high court on July 30 last year refused to pass an order against which he approached the top court in appeal.
Shah objected to the portrayal of Gangubai as a prostitute in the movie, based on a novel by S Hussain Zaidi and Jane Borges on “The Mafia Queens of Mumbai” which projected Gangubai as a lady don and a prostitute. In his appeal filed through advocate Arun Kumar Sinha, Shah claimed that though the order of the high court was interim in nature, it made the entire case infructuous as the movie defames his mother who was known to be a social worker.
“In a case related to defamation, balance of convenience is always in favour of person defamed and the reputation of such defamed person cannot be compensated in terms of money,” the petition said.
A bench of justices Indira Banerjee and JK Maheshwari, while hearing the appeal, asked Dave, “Is changing the title possible.” Dave told the Court that only 48 hours remained for the movie to be released and changing the title in such a short span will not be possible.
The appeal also named Alia Bhatt along with the authors of the book and director Sanjay Leela Bhansali as parties. During the hearing, the bench asked if someone’s mother could be called a prostitute.
Dave told the Court that this issue was raised by Shah in a suit proceeding instituted before a civil court in Mumbai where he was unsuccessful. He referred to the order of the civil court passed on February 17 last year which rejected the suit for defamation on the ground that the plaintiff (Shah) could not prove to be the adopted son. Against this order, Shah approached the high court, which is still pending.
As the hearing on the appeal remained inconclusive, the bench posted the matter for further hearing on Thursday.
