Delhi High Court Refuses To Ban Streaming Of Film Based On Sushant Singh Rajput

The Delhi High Court has refused to restrain the continued online streaming of a film based on the life of the late Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput.

Justice C Hari Shankar yesterday dismissed an application by Krishna Kishore Singh, the father of the dead film star, who claimed the movie ''Nyay: The Justice'', which is streaming on an online platform, included defamatory statements and news articles, and violated the personality rights associated with Sushant Singh Rajput (SSR).

The application formed part of a lawsuit by Sushant Singh Rajput's father against the filmmakers for making the movie without his consent.

Justice Shankar ruled no case for interim relief was made in the present matter as the prosecutor sought to protect the "inheritable" rights of privacy, publicity and personality which vested in SSR who was no longer alive.

"The rights ventilated in the plaint - i.e., the right to privacy, the right to publicity and the personality rights which vested in SSR, are not heritable. They died with the death of SSR. The said rights, therefore, did not survive for espousal by the prosecutor....," said the court in its order dated July 11.

"I am of the opinion that no case can be said to exist to grant the prayers made by the prosecutor in (the interlocutory application). The IA is, therefore, dismissed," the court ordered.

Sushant Rajput, 34, was found dead in his Mumbai apartment in suburban Bandra on June 14, 2020.

While the defendant filmmakers claimed the movie was a generalized version of struggling actors in the Hindi film industry with some inspiration taken from material in the public domain, the court maintained the film was a "retelling" of Sushant Singh Rajput's life and times, leading up to his tragic death.

"To put it plainly, the coincidences are one too many... the impugned film is a faithful retelling of SSR's life story, and the circumstances surrounding his untimely demise are, therefore, according to me, plain," the court said.

"The disclaimer, inserted in the impugned movie cannot, therefore, in my considered opinion, detract from the reality that the movie is, in fact, a celluloid retelling of the life and death of Sushant Singh Rajput," it added.

The information shown in the impugned film, the court added, was entirely derived from items in media and constituted publicly available information. Therefore, a film made on such information cannot be said to be violating any rights of the dead actor.

"The impugned movie, being based on information in the public domain, which, at the time of its original dissemination, was never challenged or questioned, cannot be sought to be injuncted at this distance of time, especially when it has already been released on the Lapalap platform a while ago and must have been seen, by now, by thousands," the court said.

"The movie cannot be said to be infracting Article 19(2) of the Constitution of India. Injuncting further dissemination of the movie would, therefore, infract the defendants' rights under Article 19(1)(a) (freedom of speech and expression)," it said.

The court also rejected the prosecutor's contention that permitting the telecast of the film will prejudice the right to a fair, free and dispassionate trial of the circumstances surrounding Sushant Singh Rajput's death.
 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)