Bollywood’s leading associations and production houses file a suit in Delhi High Court against Republic TV, Arnab Goswami, Pradeep Bhandari, Times Now, Navika Kumar and Rahul Shivshankar. As per reports, the suit asks them to refrain from making ‘irresponsible, defamatory and derogatory remarks’ against Bollywood in wake of mysterious death of Sushant Singh Rajput and subsequent drug scandal that has emerged.
The suit asks the news channel to ABIDE by the provisions of the Programme Code and to withdraw, RECALL and take down all the DEFAMATORY content published by them against Bollywood. @navikakumar @pradip103 @RShivshankar #ArnabGoswami #SSRcase #DishaSalian
— Bar & Bench (@barandbench) October 12, 2020
The suit also asks them to take down all “defamatory” content published by them against the film industry. The Bollywood bigwigs are upset at the alleged use of words like “dirt”, “filth”, “scum”, “druggies” & expressions such as “all the perfumes of Arabia cannot take away the stench and the stink of this filth and scum of the underbelly of Bollywood” to describe the film industry.
Four cine-associations and 34 production houses including the ones owned by Aamir Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, Karan Johar, Farhan Akhtar, Rakesh Roshan, Salman Khan and his brother Sohail Khan, Ajay Devgn and Aditya Chopra amongst others have filed the suit.
The defendants claim that livelihood of people associated with Bollywood is impacted because of alleged smear campaign. They also allege their privacy is also invaded and reputation “irreparably damaged” by painting entire industry seeped in drug culture.
Bollywood drug abuse scandal
Bollywood drug scandal emerged after the demise of actor Sushant Singh Rajput on 14th June 2020. While it was earlier reported that he died of suicide, the family later alleged a foul play. Probe into his death has led to investigation into allegations of drug abuse in the tinsel town. The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) is currently carrying out investigation and had even summoned actresses like Deepika Padukone and Sarah Ali Khan for questioning.
