Bombay High Court refuses to stay the release of Santa Banta Pvt Ltd.

19 Apr 2016

After the trailer of the Vir Das-Boman Irani starrer film Santa Banta Pvt Ltd. , went viral, Charan Singh Sapra (Congress MLC from Mulund) and his supporters felt that the dialogues were indecent and filthy and the script of the film was offensive and that it showed the Sikh community in very poor light. His lawyer B.A. Desai also showed the film's posters to the bench allegedly claiming indecency by the film's actors. He also urged the Censor Board to withdraw its certificate issued to the producers to screen the film. Besides stating that the film's dialogues went against the Constitution's spirit, he also added that the jokes on 'sardarji' were intended to defame them (the community). He also stated that the film's release would lead to public disorder and also could possibly also lead to a law and order situation. Lastly, he requested for an interim relief to stall the film's release.

Yesterday, the Bombay High Court refused to grant an interim stay on the release of the to-be-released film Santa Banta Pvt Ltd. Justice SC Dharmadhikari and Dr. Shalini Phansalkar Joshi, who were heading a division bench, said that they can't stop any film's release unless an opportunity was given to the producer and Censor Board to reply to the allegations. In addition to that, the court also asked the respondents to file affidavits in reply to the petition within two weeks.

While Santa Banta Pvt Ltd. is directed by Akashdeep Sabir, it stars Boman Irani, Vir Das, Neha Dhupia, Lisa Haydon, Johnny Lever and Ram Kapoor in the lead roles. The film is slated to release on April 22.