13-10-2020

As many as 34 top Bollywood producers and four film industry associations Monday filed a lawsuit in the Delhi High Court, seeking to restrain television channels from making �irresponsible, derogatory and defamatory remarks� against the Hindi film industry. The suit has been filed against Republic TV�s Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami and journalist Pradeep Bhandari of the channel, and Times Now�s Editor-in-Chief Rahul Shivshankar and its prominent anchor Navika Kumar as respondents.

The production companies include those run by Salman Khan, Aamir Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, Karan Johar, Farhan Akhtar and Ajay Devgn. They have been assailed for conducting media trials of Bollywood personalities and interfering with the right to privacy of persons associated with the film industry, in the wake of Sushant Singh Rajput�s death and the subsequent arrest of his girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty.

�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,� reads the suit filed by the law firm DSK Legal.
�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.�