Over the Top platform Netflix told the Delhi High Court on Thursday that Aryan Khan’s show Ba***ds of Bollywood exposes the functioning of Bollywood movie industry and that former Narcotic Control Bureau (NCB) officer Sameer Wankhede should not be oversensitive about a one-and-a-half-minute satire.
Senior Advocate Rajiv Nayar appeared for the streaming platform and said that the show has Karan Johar making a self-referential joke, calling himself movie mafia, Imran Hashmi has been cast as an intimacy coach, and there are discussions about drug abuse, MeToo, casting couch, nepotism, insider versus outsider debate, which shows that it exposes “bad ways of Bollywood”.
“Everybody has been painted with some side of parody or satire. When the series is viewed as a whole, it is a broad lampooning of Bollywood… This is the theme. Actually, the theme is to expose Bollywood and its workings,” Nayar said.
The senior counsel was making submissions before Justice Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav who is hearing Wankhede’s defamation case over his alleged depiction in the Aryan Khan show.
The show has been produced by Shah Rukh Khan’s production house Red Chillies Entertainment and is streamed on Netflix.
At present, the Court is hearing arguments on Wankhede’s interim relief application.
Nayar referred to interviews and public statements by Wankhede, where he invited attention and public scrutiny on himself and said he is not bothered about the criticisms and media reporting.
“The plaintiff [Wankhede] says he is not bothered. He says I am broad-chested. The plaintiff says my shoulders are broad enough to handle any criticism. If he enjoys that, why does he get sensitive about 1.5 minutes of the satire or parody,” Nayar contended.
He added that the mere fact that Aryan Khan and Wankhede have a prior history (of the NCB officer arresting him in a drug bust case), does not prove that Khan is acting out of malice.
“At the highest, his case is that Aryan Khan spoke out of dislike or ill will towards him. Even then, he does not waive the threshold of malice,” Nayar said.
As Nayar concluded his arguments, the Court asked Wankhede to provide it with details of the legal proceedings initiated by him or pending against him.
On the next date of hearing on December 2, Wankhede’s lawyer, Senior Advocate J Sai Deepak, will make his rejoinder submissions.