Hindustan Times (East UP)

HC to hear plea by film producers

- Letters@hindustant­imes.com

PLEA SEEKS TO RESTRAIN TV CHANNELS FROM MAKING “IRRESPONSI­BLE, DEROGATORY AND DEFAMATORY REMARKS”

Press Trust of India

The Delhi high court will hear on Monday a plea by leading Bollywood producers seeking to restrain Republic TV and Times Now from making or publishing allegedly ” against the film industry and conducting media trials against its members on various issues.

The lawsuit by four Bollywood industry associatio­ns and 34 leading producers, which was filed on October 12, will come up for hearing before Justice Rajiv Shakdher.

It has also sought to restrain them from interferin­g with the right to privacy of persons associated with the industry.

It has sought direction to Republic TV, its editor-inchief Arnab Goswami and reporter Pradeep Bhandari, Times Now, its editor-in-chief Rahul Shivshanka­r and group editor Navika Kumar, and unknown defendants as well as social media platforms to refrain from making or publishing allegedly irresponsi­ble, derogatory and defamatory remarks against Bollywood.

The suit filed through DSK Legal firm said, “This comes in the wake of these channels using highly derogatory words and expression­s for Bollywood such as ‘dirt’, ‘filth’, ‘scum’, ‘druggies’ and expression­s 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 drenched Bollywood’.”

Those who have filed the suit are The Film and Television Producers Guild Of India (PGI), The Cine and 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 and Dharma Production­s.

The list includes Emmay Entertainm­ent and 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.

The other plaintiffs are Roy Kapur Films, Salman Khan Films, Sikhya Entertainm­ent, Sohail Khan Production­s, Tiger Baby Digital, Vinod Chopra Films, Vishal Bhardwaj Pictures and Yashraj Films.

In the plea, the producers have sought that the defendants (media persons) shall abide by provisions of the Programme Code under the Cable Television Networks Rules and to withdraw, recall and take down all the defamatory content published by them against the film industry.

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