Reel Row: A scene from Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham...

Imagine Shakti Kapoor, Gulshan Grover and all the rest of the baddies in a film sequence standing up when Jana Gana Mana rings out.

Well, it could just happen, though you in the audience need not follow suit.

The Supreme Court today decided to examine if the national anthem could be exploited commercially by film-makers and how it should be depicted on celluloid.

Along with these, it will examine if actors should stand up when it is sung.

A three-judge bench of Chief Justice R.C. Lahoti and Justices S.B. Sinha and S.H. Kapadia made these decisions while hearing a review petition on so-called “abuse” of the anthem in Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham....

“We will hear the petition on all points except the certificate issued for screening of the film by the central board for film certification,” it said.

The court has already settled the controversy over the “commercial use” of the national anthem in this particular film, holding that the audience was not required to stand up when it was sung in K3G and will not go into that question again.

The review petition, filed by Shyam Narayan Chouksey, had sought confirmation of the Madhya Pradesh High Court order instructing producer Yash Johar and director Karan Johar to delete that portion of the film where the anthem was sung.

According to the petitioner, the national anthem was sung in the film in a disrespectful manner and the audience in theatres never stood up. The high court had ordered that the entire scene be deleted, but on appeal by film-makers, the Supreme Court allowed screening and held that the audience need not get up when the national anthem was sung in the film.

The petitioner sought a review of that order, on which notices were issued today, and the court expanded the scope of the petition by deciding that “commercial use” of the anthem in films and the manner in which it should be depicted should be decided once and for all.

Former Chief Justice V.N. Khare said the question of depiction of the anthem in a film had already been settled. Khare was the judge who had decided that the audience need not get up when the national anthem is sung in a film.

Khare said depiction of the national anthem or for that matter the national flag in a film or even exhibiting it on “one’s person” would not be any “crime”. He recalled industrialist Naveen Jindal’s battle for flying the national flag on one’s car or on one’s rooftop, describing it as “an exhibition of patriotic and nationalist sentiment”.

“Can you call depiction of Bharat Mata in a film or a novel or any other creative work or even in a non-creative situation, like exhibiting Bharat Mata in one’s house, commercial exploitation?”

“It is one’s sentiment... you call it nationalist or patriotic or one’s feeling for one’s country.”