Bombay High Court restrains Kamaal R Khan from publishing defamatory tweets against producer Vashu Bhagnani

The Bombay High Court on Thursday restrained Kamaal R Khan from publishing, circulating or repeating defamatory tweets and making false and misleading allegations against Bollywood producer Vashu Bhagnani, his family members and his business..Bhagnani had moved the Court with a suit seeking Rs. 1 crore in damages after coming across a series of tweets by Khan which seemed like a "well-orchestrated smear campaign" against him. The producer claimed that Khan's tweets were made to tarnish his reputation and standing without any cause whatsoever..After hearing the submissions for urgent relief, Justice AK Menon was of the conclusion that the "tweets do not refer to the contents of the film and very clearly refer to the plaintiff himself and the effect that plaintiff has in Bollywood. Several of these tweets are prima facie slanderous and actionable." .Justice Menon thus restrained Khan from "publishing, circulating or repeating the allegations and tweets and videos" till the disposal of the suit..In his plea, Bhagnani has stated that the essence of the tweets was that Bhagnani's production house had not made payments in respect of remake rights of his film. Allegedly, Khan also claimed that Bhagnani along with actor Akshay Kumar were engaged in illegal transactions where money was routed from India to USA, etc..Before the High Court, counsel for Bhagnani contended that "it seems to be the modus operandi of the Respondent to target 'big banner films' at the time of their release with an aim to get easy and cheap publicity at the expense of others." He added that on account of the comments and tweets Khan has made, any person is bound to have an unfavourable opinion of Bhagnani..It was further claimed that Khan had several cases against him in the past for making allegedly defamatory comments against prominent "sift targets" to gain unfair mileage. However, this only shows that Khan is "not only incorrigible but also brazen about his modus operandi with slightest regard for the law and or the High Court and its orders.".Advocate Manoj Gadkari, appearing for Khan, submitted that his client had merely commented on the films produced by Bhagnani's production company and there was never any intention to defame anybody. .He added that Khan was in the habit of reviewing films since he is a film critic and the remarks made in the tweets were on the film."This tweet is not any reflection on the plaintiff or his abilities but that of his son. This is sought to be used as an example demonstrating that it is only a critical comment and nothing else.".After granting the ad-interim injunction order in favour of Bhagnani, Justice Menon granted both parties time to file affidavit in reply and affidavit in rejoinder. Gadkari was also granted time to respond to the suit..Khan had tweeted that "the Applicant (Bhagnani) is responsible to 'destroy Bollywood' by paying grossly huge amounts to actors without worrying about the losses that his films will suffer, which would be in excess of 200 crores. The applicant's son cannot act, and his films will not work.".Bhagnani discovered that Khan had also released a 10-minute video titled 'Corrupt Bollywood' wherein he referenced various personalities like Karan Johar, Farah Khan, Ekta Kapoor, etc including Bhagnani, and spoke ill of them. The insinuation of Khan was that Bhagnani was corrupt..Khan also released a 14-minute video titled 'Film Coolie No. 1 review by KRK', wherein he allegedly made a lot of defamatory statements against Bhagnani and his son..Senior Advocate Virendra Tulzapurkar with Advocate Rashmin Khandekar instructed by Advocates Ameet Naik and Madhu Gadodia from Naik Naik & Co. represented Bhagnani..[Read order here]