34 Bollywood producers begin pushback against 2 TV channels with lawsuit

New Delhi/Mumbai: In an unprecedented show of unity, major Bollywood producers, including the three Khans, Karan Johar and Akshay Kumar, on Monday approached the Delhi High Court against two TV channels and their editors for allegedly defaming the industry with terms such as scum and druggies.

The lawsuit, by four industry associations and 34 producers, seeks the court's direction to Republic TV, its editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami and reporter Pradeep Bhandari, Times Now, its editor-in-chief Rahul Shivshankar and group editor Navika Kumar and unknown defendants as well as social media platforms to refrain from making or publishing allegedly irresponsible, derogatory and defamatory remarks against Bollywood.

The civil suit, which cites reportage of Rajput's death and the subsequent Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) probe into the alleged role of some actors following allegations of drug abuse in the industry, is likely to come up for hearing later this week.

Those who have approached the court include the Producers Guild of India, Cine and TV Artiste Association, Film and TV Producers Council, Shah Rukh Khan's Red Chillies Entertainment, Aamir Khan Productions, Ajay Devgn Films, Akshay Kumar's Cape of Good Films, Karan Johar's Dharma Productions, Yash Raj Films and Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani's Excel Entertainment.

The producers said they are "not seeking a blanket gag order" but want the defendants to abide by the provisions of the Programme Code under the Cable Television Networks Rules and to withdraw, recall and take down all the defamatory content published by them against the film industry.