New Delhi: Netflix original web-series 'Sacred Games' hogged the limelight within days of its premiere on July 6. It courted controversy over a particular dialogue where reference was made to former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. A complaint was filed against the makers and the matter has been up for hearing in court.
According to PTI, the Delhi High Court was recently informed that Netflix has not changed an alleged objectionable word in its series "Sacred Games" that was used to describe former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi. A bench of justices Sanjiv Khanna and Chander Shekhar was told by the counsel for the streaming service that a partly-wrong statement was made by him earlier and that neither they have changed the word in the English subtitles nor they want to change it. "My instructions are that we don't want to change the word," senior advocate Chander Lal, appearing for Netflix, said.
On July 19, Netflix's counsel, on instructions, had informed the bench that they, on their own, had changed a word in the English subtitles in the fourth episode of the series, which was allegedly derogatory.
The court was hearing a plea filed by petitioner Nikhil Bhalla, through advocate Shashank Garg. It contended that the show, starring Saif Ali Khan and Nawazuddin Siddiqui, "incorrectly depicts historical events of the country like Bofors case, Shah Bano case, Babri Masjid case and communal riots".
The bench listed the matter for further hearing on September 20.
"Nobody is pressing or forcing you. You take your own decision, whether you want to change the word or not. We are not going to compel you," the bench orally said during the hearing. It had earlier observed that criticism and expression of dissatisfaction were permissible and it did not want to curtail anyone's right.
Earlier, the court was also of a prima facie view that it could be a private injury and not a public injury and asked the petitioner to address it on point of maintainability of the plea as a public interest litigation (PIL). The court had earlier observed that actors could not be held liable for enacting their characters and a person was entitled to express his views, which might be right or wrong.
The plea alleged that certain scenes and dialogues in the show defamed the late Congress leader.
Sacred Games is based on Vikram Chandra's 2006 thriller novel of the same name. The novel was adapted by Smita Singh, Vasant Nath, and Varun Grover, and all eight, hour-long episodes were directed by Anurag Kashyap and Vikramaditya Motwane.
It has been produced in partnership with Phantom Films. It stars Saif Ali Khan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, and Radhika Apte in lead roles. Ahead of its premiere, the show was high on buzzword and highly anticipated among the viewers.
(With PTI inputs)
