Leading Bollywood filmmakers files lawsuit in Delhi High Court against 2 news channels

Oct. 12: As many as 38 film bodies and production houses have filed lawsuit in the Delhi High Court against “irresponsible and derogatory” reporting by a few media houses. Republic TV, Arnab Goswami, Pradeep Bhandari, Times Now, Rahul Shivshankar, Navika Kumar have been named in the suit.

Production houses of Shah Rukh Khan, Ajay Devgn, Salman Khan, Aamir Khan, Karan Johar, Akshay Kumar, Aditya Chopra, Farhan Akhtar, Zoya Akhtar and all other major banners have all come together as plaintiffs in the suit. The Film &Television Producers Guild of India (PGI) and Cine & TV Artistes Association (CINTAA) have also joined the suit.

[BREAKING] Suit has been filed before Delhi High Court by four Bollywood industry Assns & 34 leading Bollywood producers AGAINST

Republic TV
Arnab Goswami
Pradeep Bhandari
Times Now
Rahul Shivshankar
Navika Kumar @navikakumar @pradip103 @RShivshankar #ArnabGoswami pic.twitter.com/NXAP4w1Uvp

— Bar & Bench (@barandbench) October 12, 2020

The channels used “highly derogatory words and expressions for Bollywood”, said the producers, listing terms like “dirt”, “filth”, “scum” and “druggies” used over the past few months. According to the plaintiffs, the channels in question have been regularly flouting the Programme Code framed under Section 5 of the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995 and contained in Rule 6 of the Cable Television Network Rules, 1994, which governs the television channels owned and operated by these Defendants.

Here’s the full list of plaintiffs:

The Producers Guild of India
The Cine & TV Artiste Association
The Film and TV Producers Council
Screenwriters Association
Aamir Khan Productions
Ad-Labs Films
Ajay Devgn Films
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
Dharma Productions
Emmay Entertainment & Motion Pictures
Excel Entertainment
Filmkraft Productions
Hope Production
Kabir Khan Films
Luv Films
Macguffin Pictures
Nadiadwala Grandson Entertainment
One India Stories
R.S. Entertainment
Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra Pictures
Red Chillies Entertainment
Reliance Big Entertainment
Reel Life Productions
Rohit Shetty Pictures
Roy Kapur Productions
Salman Khan Ventures
Sohail Khan Productions
Sikhya Entertainment
Tiger Baby Digital
Vinod Chopra Films
Vishal Bhardwaj Film
Yash Raj Films

While the producers don’t call for blanket media gag in the Sushant Singh Rajput investigation, they want the court to stop reportage that violates the law. They want the channels to “withdraw, recall and take down all the defamatory content published by them against Bollywood”.