Plea in HC against movies on Sushant Singh Rajput; court seeks filmmakers’ stand

PTI, Apr 20, 2021, 2:22 PM IST

Source: Twitter

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court Tuesday asked the producers of various proposed and upcoming films on the life of late Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput to respond to a plea by his father seeking to restrain anyone from using his son’s name or likeness in movies.

Justice Manoj Kumar Ohri issued notice to the filmmakers and sought their stand by May 24 on the suit filed by Rajput’s father — Krishna Kishore Singh.

Some of the upcoming or proposed movie projects, based on Rajput’s life, mentioned in the plea, are – ‘Nyay: The Justice’, ‘Suicide or Murder: A star was lost’, ‘Shashank’, and an unnamed crowd-funded film.

According to the suit, filed through advocates Akshay Dev, Varun Singh, Abhijeet Pandey, and Samruddhi Bendbhar, ‘Nyay’ is scheduled to be released in June, while shooting has commenced with regard to ‘Suicide or Murder: A star was lost’ and ‘Shashank’.

”The defendants (filmmakers), taking advantage of this situation, have been trying to encash this opportunity for ulterior motives.

”Thus, Plaintiff (Singh) has apprehension that various plays, movies, web-series, books, interviews or other material may be published which would harm the reputation of the son of the plaintiff and his family,” claimed the suit which has sought damages of over Rs 2 crores from the filmmakers for ”loss of reputation, mental trauma and harassment” to Rajput’s family.

It has also claimed that in case a ”movie, web series, book, or any other content of similar nature is allowed to be published or broadcasted, it would affect the right of the victim and deceased for a free and fair trial as it may cause prejudice to them”.

The suit has also contended that Rajput being a well-known celebrity, ”any misuse of his name/ image/ caricature/ style of delivering dialogues also amounts to infringement of the personality right vested with the plaintiff besides amounting to acts of passing off”. ”The said right would be available to the plaintiff after his son’s death as he is the only legal heir of Sushant Singh Rajput,” it has further contended.

Singh, in his plea, has sought directions from the court to restrain the filmmakers mentioned in the suit as well as anyone else from using his son’s ”name/ caricature/ lifestyle or likeness in their forthcoming project/films in any manner whatsoever”.