About 38 film bodies and production houses have filed a suit against a news channel and four journalists for defaming the Hindi film industry. Over the last couple of months, Bollywood became the target of constant ridicule on news channels with derogatory terms being used for the industry.
A civil suit has been filed before Delhi High Court praying that the court direct the news channel Republic TV, Arnab Goswami and Pradeep Bhandari of Republic TV, the news channel Times Now, Rahul Shivshankar and Navika Kumar of Times Now, and unknown defendants as well as social media platforms to refrain from making or publishing irresponsible, derogatory and defamatory remarks against the Hindi film industry as a whole and members of Bollywood.
The suit also sought to restrain the news channels from conducting media trials of Bollywood personalities and interfering with the right to privacy of people associated with the film industry. This comes in the wake of the above-mentioned channels using words and expressions for Bollywood such as “dirt”, “filth”, “scum” and “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”.
The Bollywood producers have made it clear that they did not want a ban on the coverage on Sushant’s death but sought permanent injunctions on Goswami, his TV channel and colleague and Times Now, Shivshankar and Kumar ‘from carrying on reportage and publication of material that violates applicable laws.’
The producers said they are “not seeking a blanket gag order” but want the defendants (media persons) to abide by the 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.