New Delhi: The Bombay High Court has granted interim stay on proceedings initiated by a local court against actor Alia Bhat and filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali in a criminal defamation complaint filed in connection with the film “Gangubai Kathiawadi”.
The HC, in its order on August 10, had granted interim stay till the next date of hearing on September 7.
A metropolitan magistrate issued summons in March this year against Bhat, Bhansali and their production company Bhansali Productions Pvt Ltd on a defamation complaint filed by Babuji Shah, who claimed to be the adopted son of Gangubai Kathiawadi, on which the film is based. .
The film stars Alia Bhatt as Gangubai, one of the most powerful, beloved and respected madams of Kamathipura, Mumbai’s red-light area during the 1960s. Shah claimed that the film was inspired by the novel ‘The Mafia Queens of Mumbai’.
According to Shah, some parts of the novel were defamatory, tarnished the reputation of Gangubai Kathiawadi and violated her right to privacy. However, senior advocate Abad Ponda, appearing for Bhat, Bhansali and their company, argued that they had no knowledge of Shah’s existence.
Justice Revati Mohite Dere issued a notice to Shah on August 10 and posted the application filed by Bhat and Bhansali for hearing on September 7. “Meanwhile, till the next date, the proceedings before the trial court, with respect to the merit (of) applicants, have been stayed,” the court said.
In a related development, another HC bench refused to stay the release of the film.
Shah had moved the High Court seeking a stay on the film’s release and restraining the authors/publishers of the novel from making any third party rights or writing any other story on the life of Gangubai Kathiawadi.
Justice Nitin Sambre, in his order passed on July 30, dismissed the application saying that any material of defamatory nature lapses with the death of that person.
Justice Sambre said, “It is for the appellant (Shah) to show that he is the adopted son of the deceased Gangubai Kathiawadi, which he has prima facie failed to do.”
The film was earlier scheduled to release in September 2020 but got delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Earlier this year, the makers had announced that the film would hit the theaters in 2021.
Watch this space for more updates.
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