Aamir Khan, SRK and Salman Khan's Production Companies Approach Delhi HC Against Republic TV, Arnab Goswami, Times Now

As many as 38 film bodies and production houses have filed a suit against a news channel and four journalists for defaming the Hindi film industry. Over the last couple of months, Bollywood became the target of constant ridicule on news channels with derogatory terms being used for the industry.

Republic TV, Arnab Goswami, Pradeep Bhandari, Times Now, Rahul Shivshankar, Navika Kumar have been named in the suit filed before the Delhi High Court. Production houses of Shah Rukh Khan, Ajay Devgn, Salman Khan, Aamir Khan, Karan Johar, Akshay Kumar, Aditya Chopra, Farhan Akhtar, Zoya Akhtar and all other major banners have all come together as plaintiffs in the suit. The Film &Television Producers Guild of India (PGI) and Cine & TV Artistes Association (CINTAA) have also joined the suit.

[BREAKING] Suit has been filed before Delhi High Court by four Bollywood industry Assns & 34 leading Bollywood producers AGAINST

Republic TV
Arnab Goswami
Pradeep Bhandari
Times Now
Rahul Shivshankar
Navika Kumar @navikakumar @pradip103 @RShivshankar #ArnabGoswami pic.twitter.com/NXAP4w1Uvp

— Bar & Bench (@barandbench) October 12, 2020

The news channels are accused of using derogatory words such as “dirt”, “filth”, “scum”, “druggies” and expressions such as “all the perfumes of Arabia cannot take away the stench and the stink of this filth and scum of the underbelly of Bollywood”. 

Here’s a full list of the following production houses: 

1. The Film &Television Producers Guild of India (PGI) 

2.  The Cine & TV Artiste? Association (CINTAA) 

3. Indian Film and TV Producers Council (IFTPC) 

4. Screenwriters Association (SWA) 

5. Aamir Khan Productions 

6. Ad-Labs Films 

7. Ajay Devgn Flims 

8. Andolan Films 

9. Anil Kapoor Film and Communication Network 

10. Arbaaz Khan Productions 

11. Ashutosh Gowariker Productions 

12. BSK Network and Entertainment 

13. Cape of Good Films 

14. Clean Slate Filmz

15. Dharma Productions 

16. Emmay Entertainment & Motion Pictures 

17. Excel Entertainment 

18. Filmkraft Productions 

19. Hope Production 

20. Kabir Khan Films 

21. Luv Films 

22. MacGuffin Pictures 

23. Nadiadwala Grandson Entertainment 

24. One India Stories 

25. R.S. Entertainment (Ramesh Sippy Entertainment) 

26. Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra Pictures 

27. Red Chillies Entertainment 

28. Reel Life Productions 

29. Reliance Big Entertainment 

30. Rohit Shetty Picturez 

31. Roy Kapur Films 

32. Salman Khan Films 

33. Sikhya Entertainment 

34. Sohail Khan Productions 

35. Tiger Baby Digital 

36. Vinod Chopra Films 

37. Vishal Bhardwaj Pictures 

38. Yashraj Films 

CINTAA has refused comment at this point, saying that the matter is sub-judice’.

Republic TV is also embroiled in a fake TRPs controversy. Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh had claimed that Republic TV and two other Marathi channels had manipulated TRPs.

The TRP racket was unearthed after a police complaint by Hansa Research Group Pvt Ltd, the agency contracted by the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) to place audience meters to monitor TV channels watched by households.