E-Paper
No malice against Wankhede in ‘Ba***ds of Bollywood’: Netflix tells Delhi HC
Netflix said the show exposed the functioning of the Bollywood movie industry and Sameer Wankhede should not be oversensitive about a one-and-a-half-minute satire
New Delhi: Merely contending that ‘Ba***ds of Bollywood’ is directed by Aryan Khan, with whom Sameer Wankhede has a prior history, does not establish malice on Khan’s part and justify the removal of portions from the series, over the top (OTT) platform Netflix told the Delhi high court on Thursday.
The series was created, co-written, and directed by Aryan Khan, Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan’s son, who was arrested by Wankhede in a Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) raid on a cruise ship in 2021. Aryan Khan and five others were exonerated by NCB in 2022.
The submission was made by the platform’s lawyer, Rajiv Nayyar, before a bench of Justice Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav, to oppose Wankhede’s defamation suit filed against the platform and Shah Rukh Khan’s production house, Red Chillies Entertainment.
Wankhede in his suit had asserted that makers deliberately maligned his reputation by adding a character closely mirroring his appearance and mannerisms. The suit had stated that the content was added “primarily” to ridicule him and settle past scores.
The threshold for proving defamation of public servants or individuals holding public office, Nayyar said, is significantly higher than for other ordinary private individuals, and Wankhede had failed to prima facie demonstrate any element of malice in the depiction of the scene.
“Merely showing that it (the series) is by Shahrukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan is not enough. He has to cross the threshold of proving malice. At the highest, his case is that Aryan Khan spoke out of dislike or ill will towards him. Even then, he does not waive the threshold of malice,” Nayyar said.
During Thursday’s hearing, Nayyar also submitted that the show exposed the functioning of the Bollywood movie industry and Wankhede should not be oversensitive about a one-and-a-half-minute satire. The senior lawyer noted that the show featured Karan Johar making a self-referential remark by calling himself “movie mafia,” cast Emraan Hashmi as an intimacy coach, and included conversations on drug abuse, MeToo, the casting couch, nepotism, and the insider, outsider debate, indicating that it critically highlights the “darker aspects of Bollywood.”
“Everybody has been painted with some side of parody or satire. When the series is viewed as a whole, it is a broad lampooning of Bollywood… This is the theme. Actually, the theme is to expose Bollywood and its workings,” Nayar said.
Shah Rukh Khan’s Red Chillies Entertainment had defended the series, saying that the episode in question portrays a fictional story set during a Bollywood success party and was not a recreation of the Cordelia cruise raid. Red Chillies lawyer Neeraj Kishan Kaul had submitted that all characters in the series are intentionally portrayed with exaggerated traits and mannerisms, and that the show highlights various issues within the Bollywood industry, including the arrest of actors in drug-related cases.
