Medical charity takes Bollywood filmmakers to court over ‘Phantom’

NEW DELHI: International charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is taking legal action against the producers of a new Bollywood film, saying its misrepresentation of the medical group could put its aid workers deployed in conflict zones at risk.

The action-thriller Phantom was released yesterday and features British- Indian actress Katrina Kaif playing a role she has described as an MSF aid worker who helps a disgraced Indian soldier, played by actor Saif Ali Khan, to assassinate Pakistani militants accused of being behind the 2008 Mumbai bombings.

In promotional interviews for the Hindi film this week, Kaif was quoted as saying, “NGO workers have ties with local fanatical groups” in wartorn regions, without mentioning that many aid groups maintain strict neutrality in order to do their work safely.

In the film’s trailer, her character is seen firing a pistol and rifle in two different scenes.

MSF said it had not been consulted over the content of the film and was not associated with it in any way.

The humanitarian agency had “a strict no guns policy” in all its clinics and did not employ armed guards, it added.

“None of our staff would ever carry a gun. Any portrayal that suggests otherwise is dangerous, misleading and wrong,” MSF said in a statement late on Thursday.

“We have contacted the film’s production team and are taking legal action in order to correct this dangerous misrepresentation of our organisation and its work.”

The film’s director Kabir Khan and producers Sajid Nadiadwala and Siddharth Roy Kapur could not immediately be reached for comment.

Phantom was banned by a Pakistani court last week in response to a petition filed by Hafiz Saeed, the man India accuses of masterminding the killing of 166 people over three days in November 2008.

Saeed, the founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba which the UN has listed as a terrorist organisation, said the film whose main villain is a man called “Hariz Saeed” maligns Pakistan and vilifies him.

MSF said it was essential that the group was not misrepresented given the dangerous nature of their work. – Reuters