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Calcutta, Oct. 19: Calcutta High Court today allowed the producer and director of Chakravyuh to use the controversial song Mehengai (price rise) along with a scroll that the lyrics do not intend to malign any industrialist or business family.
Chakravyuh, directed by Prakash Jha, is set to hit the theatres on October 24 but the song is being shown on TV and is available on YouTube.
The song mentions the surnames Tata, Birla, Ambani and Bata. Three industrial houses — Tata, Birla and Bata — have moved the Calcutta and Delhi high courts saying the song should be removed from the film.
“There are so many Birlas in the country. How could you say that the song had intended to defame a particular Birla?” Justice Ashim Banerjee said while passing the order.
Birla family patriarch Basant Kumar Birla had moved a petition in Calcutta High Court yesterday to get the song removed from the film. After a single-judge bench of Justice I.P. Mukherji allowed the song with a disclaimer, the family moved the division bench of acting Chief Justice K.J. Sengupta and Justice Asim Mondal. After Justice Sengupta declined to hear the matter on personal grounds, the case was assigned to the division bench headed by Justice Banerjee.
During today’s hearing, Birla counsel Shaktinath Mukherjee said the song had taken digs at one of the most reputable business families in the country. Similar arguments were made earlier in Delhi High Court.
Appearing for the film’s director and producer, advocate Pratap Chatterjee said the song was merely “symbolic” and the filmmaker did not intend to malign any business family.
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