A plea filed at the Delhi High Court against Ranveer Singh’s upcoming film Jayeshbhai Jordaar for showing sex-determination scenes has been dismissed after the makers agreed to add disclaimers to the scenes in question.
With the plea dismissed, the film is clear to release this Friday, as scheduled.
The plea was filed by an NGO named Youth Against Crime, which took issue with a prenatal sex-determination scene shown in the film’s trailer. It stated that although the film is based on the issue of female foeticide and promotes the ‘save the girl child’ cause, its trailer advertises the use of ultrasound technology for sex selection, which is restricted under the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) Act, 1994. The act prohibits the use of prenatal diagnostic techniques for the purposes of sex determination.
Earlier, on Monday, a bench comprising of Acting Chief Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice Navin Chawla observed that although the film intends to promote a good message, its trailer projects the notion that prenatal sex-determination techniques are freely available to the public. “There is nothing shown in the trailer indicating that the lady is taken to the doctor in a clandestine manner. On the contrary, what gets portrayed is that any pregnant woman can easily go to a centre with a sonography machine and that this can be done without any hindrances,” the court noted.
Following this, the makers agreed to add a disclaimer to all the scenes depicting sex-determination of a foetus. They also agreed to include similar disclaimers on all promotional posts and to the trailer that is already in circulation, within a week.
“Keeping in view that the film has already been certified and is scheduled to be released on May 13 and the disclaimer that has now been agreed to be shown during scenes in question, petitioner’s counsel fairly submits he does not press the petition further,” the court said on Tuesday, dismissing the plea.
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Written and directed by Divyang Thakkar, Jayeshbhai Jordaar stars Singh as the son of a traditional Gujarati sarpanch. The film deals with the issue of equal rights for women in society, and conversations around the perceived necessity for a male child to carry on a family’s legacy. It also stars Shalini Pandey, while Boman Irani and Ratna Pathak Shah play supporting roles. The film is produced by Aditya Chopra and Maneesh Sharma under the Yash Raj Films banner.