E-Paper
What's Sameer Wankhede vs 'The Ba***ds of Bollywood' row? 5 points on lawsuit against Netflix, SRK's production
Sameer Wankhede filed a lawsuit against Netflix series The Ba***ds of Bollywood, seeking ₹2 crore in damages. Wankhede claims it maligns his reputation.
Sameer Wankhede and Aryan Khan are back in the spotlight, this time over “The Ba***ds of Bollywood”. The former Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) zonal director has moved the Delhi high court with a defamation suit, seeking permanent and mandatory injunctions against the Netflix series and its makers, including Red Chillies Entertainment. The show was co-written and directed by superstar Shah Rukh Khan’s son, Aryan Khan, who was arrested by Sameer Wankhede during a high-profile raid on a cruise ship party in October 2021.
In the defamation suit, Wankhede has sought ₹2 crore as damages to be donated to the Tata Memorial Cancer Hospital, alleging the series had been deliberately conceptualised and executed to malign his reputation in a colourable and prejudicial manner.
Here are 5 points on 'The Ba***ds of Bollywood' controversy:
- According to Sameer Wankhede, the series The Ba***ds of Bollywood disseminates a misleading and negative portrayal of anti-drug enforcement agencies.
- “[The] series depicts a character making an obscene gesture—specifically, showing a middle finger after the character recites the slogan ‘Satyamev Jayate’, which is part of the National Emblem. This act constitutes a grave and sensitive violation of the provisions of the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971, which attracts penal consequences under law,” the suit said.
- Wankhede, an IRS officer, has made Gauri Khan and Shah Rukh Khan’s Red Chillies Entertainment Limited, Netflix, X, and Google as parties to the suit. He said the series outraged national sentiment through the use of obscene and offensive material.
- In his plea, Wankhede said the series has been deliberately conceptualised and executed with the intent to malign his reputation in a colourable and prejudicial manner, especially when the case involving the officer and Aryan Khan is pending and sub-judice before the Bombay high court and the NDPS Special Court in Mumbai.
- The plea added that the content of the series is in contravention of various provisions of the Information Technology Act and the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), as it seeks to outrage national sentiment through the use of obscene and offensive material.
Aryan Khan's arrest
Aryan Khan was arrested after Wankhede raided the yacht Cordelia in Mumbai in October 2021. The NCB in 2022 exonerated Khan and five others as it filed a charge sheet against 14 people in the case under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.
A Special Investigation Team (SIT) of NCB found no evidence that Aryan Khan was part of a larger drug conspiracy or an international trafficking syndicate, and that there were several irregularities in the raid during which he was arrested.
Wankhede, who was repatriated to his parent cadre, faced a probe for allegedly demanding a ₹25 crore bribe from Shah Rukh Khan.
(With inputs from Shruti Kakkar in New Delhi)
