Change Name Of Movie "Gangubai Kathiawadi" : Supreme Court Suggests To Makers

The Supreme Court of India on Wednesday suggested the makers of the movie Gangubai Kathiawadi, set for release this Friday, to change the name of the movie.  The Court was hearing a plea by a man who claimed to be the adopted son of Gangubai Kathiawadi.

The Court has asked Senior Advocate Siddhartha Dave appearing for the respondents to take instructions in this regard and has listed the matter for hearing tomorrow. 

A Bench comprising Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice JK Maheshwari was hearing a special leave petition filed challenging Bombay High Court's order refusing to stay the release of Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Gangubai Kathiawadi, rejecting an application by Kathiawadi's 'kin' for a temporary injunction against the makers of the film.

The petitioner, Babuji Shah has sought an ad-interim ex - parte order restraining makers from printing, promoting, selling, assigning, etc. the novel namely "The Mafia Queens of Mumbai" or the film namely "Gangubai Kathiawadi" during the pendency of the case.

Shah alleged that the contents of the book 'The Mafia Queens of Mumbai' on which the movie is based are defamatory and constitute an infringement on his right to privacy, self-respect and liberty.

Shah had claimed that his "mother" was portrayed as a prostitute, brothel keeper and mafia queen in the film and the book.

The petitioner has argued that the impugned order passed by the High Court though is of interim nature but in view of nature of dispute and the specific finding recorded by the Court in the order, makes the entire pending appeal infructuous.

According to the petitioner, the balance of convenience is always in favour of person defamed and the reputation of such defamed person cannot be compensated in terms of money. Certainly such defamed person has to make out a prima facie case. Therefore, when the High Court has kept the appeal pending then it was in the interest of justice to grant temporary injunction as prayed for.

The Bombay High Court in its impugned order had observed that according to the principle of tort, an action for defamation dies with the person. "The contents of defamatory nature against the so-called adoptive mother of the appellant (Shah) dies with her death," he said.

That apart, the court held that Shah was unable to prima facie demonstrate that he was the son of deceased Gangubai. Neither has Shah sought to be declared as the adoptive son and hence suffered some injury, the court held.

Shah had approached the High Court after a City Civil Court rejected his plaint under Order VII, Rule 11(d) of the Code of Civil Procedure against Bhansali Productions Pvt Ltd, Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Ali Bhatt and the authors of the book Mafia Queens of Mumbai, Husain Zaidi and Jane Borges.

In a related development, the Bombay High Court today turned down pleas to stay the release of the film on pleas filed by Kamathipura residents who alleged that the film was defaming them.

Case Title: [Babuji Shah vs Hussain Zaidi and othrs]

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