Top production houses file suit against 2 news channels for 'defaming' Bollywood

After a slew of coverage about an alleged “Bollywood drugs mafia” in the aftermath of the suicide of Sushant Singh Rajput, 38 Bollywood producers have filed suit against Republic TV’s Arnab Goswami and Pradeep Bhandari and Times Now’s Rahul Shivshankar and Navika Kumar for “conducting media trials of Bollywood personalities and interfering with the right of privacy of persons associated with Bollywood”.

The suit, filed by DSK Legal in the Delhi High Court, has as its plaintiffs several prominent production houses including The Film & Television Producers Guild of India (PGI), The Cine & TV Artists’ Association (CINTAA), the Indian Film and TV Proucers Council (IFTPC), the Screenwriters Association (SWA), Aamir Khan Productions, Ad-Labs Films, Ajay Devgn Films, Andolans Films, Anil Kapoor Film and Communication Network, Arbaaz Khan Productions, Ashutosh Gowariker Productions, BSK Network and Entertainment, Cape of Good Films, Clean Slate Filmz, Dharma Productions, Emmay Entertainment & Motion Picture, Excel Entertainment, Filmkraft Productions, Hope Production, Kabir Khan Films, Luv Films, Macguffin Pictures, Nadiadwala Grandson Entertainment, One India Stories, Ramesh Sippy Entertainment, Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra Pictures, Red Chilies Entertainment, Reel Life Productions, Reliance Big Entertainment, Rohit Shetty Picturez, Roy Kapur Films, Salman Khan Films, Sikhya Entertainment, Sohail Khan Productions, Tiger Baby Digital, Vinod Chopra Films m Vishal Bhardwaj Pictures, and Yashraj Films.

These are the production houses of actors including Aamir Khan, Ajay Devgn, Anil Kapoor, Arbaaz Khan, Kabir Khan, Farhan Akhtar, and Salman Khan.

As reported by Bar & Bench, the suit says the producers take exception to the phrases used by these reporters to describe allegations of a drug cartel operating within the film industry, with terms such as “dirt,” “Filth”, “Scum” “Druggies” used to describe the industry, as well as expressions like "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".

The suit states, "The livelihood of persons associated with Bollywood is being severely impacted by the smear campaign being run by the Defendants. This is in addition to the ongoing pandemic which has resulted in extreme revenues and work opportunity loss. The privacy of the members of Bollywood is being invaded, and their reputations are being irreparably damaged by painting the entire Bollywood as criminals, seeped in drug culture, and making being part of Bollywood as synonymous with criminal acts in the public imagination.”

It adds that these reports had been penalized and reprimanded in the past for “irresponsible reportage” and defamatory content, and alleges that their channels have “openly flouting” the Programme Code under Section 5 of the Cable Television Networks (Regulations) Act, 1995 in Rule 6 of the Cable Television Network Rules, 1994.

"These Defendants are conducting and publishing parallel private ‘investigations’ and effectively acting as ‘courts’ to condemn persons connected with Bollywood as guilty based on what they claim is ‘evidence’ found by them, thereby trying to make a mockery of the criminal justice system,” it states.

The plaintiffs say they seek permanent injunctions against Goswami, Shivshankar & co "from carrying on reportage and publication of material that violates applicable laws". It asks the channels to “withdraw, recall and take down all the defamatory content published by them against Bollywood".

The suits comes after an AIIMS report confirms that the actor’s death was by suicide and was not a murder—vindicating actress Rhea Chakraborty who had been the subject of a prolonged media trial alleging her role in Rajput’s death. Further, Chakraborty recently received bail after the Narcotics Control Bureau accused her and her brother of being “active members of a drug syndicate that was connected with high society personalities and drug suppliers”.