SC closes plea over Ghooskhor Pandat as Neeraj Pandey drops title
SC closes plea over Ghooskhor Pandat as Neeraj Pandey drops title
Supreme Court closes the plea over Ghooskhor Pandat after Neeraj Pandey pledges a future title that won't resemble the withdrawn name.
The Supreme Court on Thursday closed proceedings against the release of the Netflix film previously titled “Ghooskhor Pandat” after filmmaker Neeraj Pandey filed an affidavit promising that the future title would not be “similar to, or evocative of” the withdrawn name. A bench of justices BV Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan disposed of the petition after taking note of Pandey's affidavit.
The bench also appealed for an end to the controversy. “Let noble thoughts come from all directions…let there be no more controversies,” the court told Pandey’s counsel, Sachin Gupta. In his affidavit, Pandey underlined that neither he nor his production house had any “deliberate or malicious intention” of outraging the religious feelings of any class of citizens. He asserted that the film does not insult or attempt to insult any religion, community or religious belief -- whether by words, visuals, title, promotional material or otherwise.
The filmmaker clarified that the project is a fictional, reformative police drama centred on a criminal investigation and does not portray any caste, religion or sect as corrupt. Addressing the controversy that arose after a teaser was released on February 3, Pandey said the promotional material was withdrawn on February 6 after concerns were raised. The affidavit stated that the earlier title “stands unequivocally withdrawn and shall not be used in any manner whatsoever.” While the new title has not yet been finalised, Pandey undertook that any future title adopted would not resemble or evoke the earlier one in respect of which objections had been raised.
The project is still at the editing stage and has not yet been released.
