Gunjan Saxena row: Delhi HC rejects plea to stay theatrical release of film, opines on art

In the latest update of the lawsuit against makers of the 2020 film Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl, the Delhi High Court on Thursday has refused to pass any interim order to stop the release of the movie in cinema halls and asked the Central government to discuss the problematic content with its producer and director of the movie. The court observed that when any art is shown, it is portrayed in a certain manner and whatever the IAF may have felt bad about, is not a bias from the makers of the movie.

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The court asked additional solicitor general Sanjay Jain, who represented the Centre, to sit with counsel for other parties including senior advocate Harish Salve for Dharma Productions, senior advocate Rajiv Nayar for director Karan Johar, and senior advocate Neeraj Kishan Kaul for Netflix to try and sort out the content-related issues with the film. 

Justice Rajiv Shakdher also agreed to watch the movie after Kishen Kaul told the court that it should watch the content and judge for itself. Refusing to restrain the release of the movie at this stage, the court said, “Who will go and watch a movie in the theatre during the pandemic. Those who wanted to see the movie have already watched it on the OTT platform.”

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Centre and IAF filed a plea seeking a stay on the broadcast, telecast, digital or OTT release as well as theatre release of Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl claiming that it maligns the 'dignity and reputation' of the IAF. They also said that the film's portrayal of IAF shows practices of gender biases which 'damages the IAF's reputation' and no NOC has been taken from IAF by the film producers. The movie, produced by Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions, was first released on Netflix on August 12 and was likely to hit theatres that have opened from Thursday after being shut due to the COVID-19 pandemic for over six months.

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They further contended that the film was not shown to the preview committee and no MoU was signed before the release which is a general practice. Delhi HC refused to grant an interim stay on the broadcast of the film based on Gunjan Saxena's life while asking Dharma Productions Private Limited, Karan Yash Johar, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited, Netflix, and others to file a response on the Centre and IAF's plea against the film. After hearing the counsel of both sides, the court adjourned the matter till January 18, 2021.

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