Aamir, Salman & SRK Sue Top News Channels

The ongoing war between Bollywood and some news channels has intensified. Four key associations of Bollywood and 34 leading producers of Hindi film industry have filed a civil suit in the Delhi High Court today. They have named two leading news channels and its journalists in their civil suit. Four journalists, two news channels were named in their affidavit. Bollywood associations informed the Delhi High Court over the alleged media trials against the Bollywood and requested the court to take stern action such that they won’t publish irresponsible, derogatory and defamatory remarks against Bollywood in future. Ever since the death of Sushant Singh Rajput, the war broke out between Bollywood and media as the latter kept targeting the industry and accused the industry of using “drugs”.

Republic TV, Arnab Goswami, Pradeep Bhandari, Times Now, Rahul Shivshankar and Navika Kumar have been named in the civil suit filed before the Delhi High Court. The civil suit accused the said media houses of using words such as “dirt”, “filth”, “scum”, “druggies” and expressions such as “cocaine and LSD drenched Bollywood”, “This is the dirtiest industry in the country”, “It is Bollywood where the dirt needs to be cleaned”, and “All the perfumes of Arabia cannot take away the stench and the stink of this filth and scum of the underbelly of Bollywood”.

Aamir Khan’s production house, Salman Khan’s production house, Shah Rukh Khan’s Red Chillies Entertainment, Reliance Big Entertainment, Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions, Yashraj Films and several other production companies in unison have come forward to file the civil suit. The four key Bollywood associations who are leading the fight against the said media houses are The Film & Television Producers Guild Of India (PGI), The Cine & TV Artistes’ Association (CINTAA), Indian Film and TV Producers Council (IFTPC) and Screenwriters Association (SWA).

Bollywood production houses in their statement said the “defamatory” campaign against the industry has added to their woes due to the ongoing pandemic of Covid-19. They alleged that this “slander” against the industry resulted in “extreme revenue loss and opportunity loss”.

“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,” said the statement by plaintiffs.