No Stay On Release of Alia Bhatt’s ‘Gangubai Kathiawadi’: Supreme Court

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday, dismissed a plea filed by a man who claims to be Gangubai’s adopted son. He had challenged the Bombay High Court’s order rejecting a petition seeking an injunction on the release of Gangubai Kathiawadi, news agency ANI reported. 

The bench of Justices Indira Banerjee and J K Maheswari said, “SLP dismissed. Reasons to follow.” The petitioner had alleged that the film portrays Gangubai and his family in a ‘bad light’. The plea presented before the SC challenged the Bombay HC’s order which also stayed the summons issued by Mumbai police against Gangubai Kathiawadi producers, lead actor Alia Bhatt, and author Hussain Zaidi.

The film is based on a chapter in Zaidi’s book ‘Mafia Queens of Mumbai’.

Residents of Kamathipura had approached the court to get the reference to the area in south Mumbai removed from the film. A petition, filed by a woman on behalf of 55 others, said the Sanjay Leela Bhansali film made “wild and derogatory” claims to portray the entire area as a “red-light hub.” “The social impact the movie will cause is that all girl residents will be termed prostitutes, be teased and taunted, and the families will have to live with lowered dignity,” the petition said.

A public-interest petition filed by Congress MLA Amin Patel wanted the film to be released only with a disclaimer that it doesn’t either want to show the Kathiawadi community to be related to Gangubai Kathiawadi or indicate “the entire area of Kamathipura is a red-light area”. It also sought a disclaimer to “show the reformation of Kamathipura residents”.

Patel’s petition mentioned objections raised from various quarters, including social service organisations and the protagonist’s daughter, against the portrayal of the neighbourhood and Gangubai as a prostitute and “mafia queen”.

Racial discrimination

Another plea for a stay, filed by social activist Hiten Mehta, claimed that the film’s trailer had a scene portraying racial discrimination against people from the Northeast, The Indian Express reported.

Senior advocate Ravi Kadam, appearing for the film’s producers, opposed the claims and submitted that once the Central Board of Film Certification cleared a film, a “very high standard” of contentions were required to review the decision. Petitioners cannot just come to court at the last minute and “throw stones”, he argued.

Additional Solicitor-General Anil Singh, appearing for the board, said the petitions were not filed immediately after the film’s trailer had been released. Nor have they challenged the board’s guidelines, he added.

While a bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Makarand S Karnik dismissed Patel’s and the Kamathipura residents’ petitions, it disposed of the plea by Mehta stating that the reasons would be recorded separately in the order.