Dikhyaa Mohanty 
Ahead of the release of Sanjay Leela Bhansali, starring Alia Bhatt’s “Gangubai Kathiawadi”, the Supreme Court suggested changing the name of the movie against the backdrop of the several cases against it pending before courts.
According to the official reports, during the hearing, a bench of Justices Indira Banerjee and J.K. Maheshwari suggested the filmmakers change the name of the movie, in the backdrop of pending court cases. However, the petitioner’s counsel insisted on an interim stay on the release of the movie, while the respondent’s counsel argued that a name change, days before the release, would not be possible.
An appeal challenging the Bombay High Court order was filed by Gangubai’s adopted son, through lawyers Arun Kumar Sinha and Rakesh Singh, claiming that the novel and the movie tarnished the image of the petitioner, his deceased mother and other family members and such statements in the plaint satisfy the ingredients, which defines defamation.
The plea said: “Because the high court while keeping the first appeal pending, in the facts and circumstances of the present case, ought to have granted temporary injunction restraining the respondents from printing, promoting, selling, assigning etc., the novel namely ‘The Mafia Queens of Mumbai’ or the film namely ‘Gangubai Kathiawadi’, which are admittedly defamatory in nature.” It added the respondents though claim that the novel or the movie are based on true facts, a defence available for the respondents to be taken up during the trial of the suit, but they have not made a specific claim that no part of the novel or movie is defamatory in nature.
The Sanjay Leela Bhansali movie is scheduled for release on Friday.
