A total of 34 Hindi film production companies and four film industry associations have filed a lawsuit in the Delhi High Court against news channel Republic TV and its anchors Arnab Goswami, Pradeep Bhandari and channel Times Now and its anchors Navika Kumar and Rahul Shivashankar for “irresponsible reporting”, NDTV reported on Monday.
According to The Quint, production banners of Salman Khan, Aamir Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, Anushka Sharma, Karan Johar and have filed the suit. The production banners that are a part of this case are Amir Khan Productions, Dharma Productions, Red Chillies Entertainment, Salman Khan Ventures, Yash Raj Films, Clean Slate Filmz, Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra Pictures, Rohit Shetty Pictures, Nadiadwala Grandson Entertainment, Vinod Chopra Films, Vishal Bhardwaj Film, Ajay Devgn Films, Anil Kapoor Film and Communication Network, Arbaaz Khan Productions, Sohail Khan Productions, Ashutosh Gowarikaer Productions, Cape of Good Films, BSK Network and Entertainment, Emmay Entertainment & Motion Pictures, Excel Entertainment, Filmkraft Productions, Hope Production, Kabir Khan Films, Luv Films and Macguffin Pictures.
Other plaintiffs include The Producers Guild of India, The Cine & TV Artiste Association, The Film and TV Producers Council and Screenwriters Association.
According to reports, the case has been filed asking channels and social media to “refrain from making or publishing irresponsible, derogatory and defamatory remarks against Bollywood and its members”.
Reports have stated that the lawsuit comes in the wake of a few channels using derogatory words and making remarks about members of the film industry, while reporting on the alleged suicide of actor Sushant Singh Rajput and the subsequent Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) investigation.
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The NCB had recently interrogated actors Deepika Padukone, Sara Ali Khan, Rakul Preet Singh among others as part of an investigation it launched into an alleged ‘drug nexus’ in the Hindi film industry. On September 8, actor Rhea Chakraborty was arrested in connection with Rajputs death and was recently granted bail after nearly a month since her arrest.