Delhi HC Refuses To Stay Streaming Of Film Based On Sushant Singh Rajput: 'His Privacy, Publicity Rights Died With Him'

The movie 'Nyay: The Justice' based on the life of the late Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput has been hitting the headlines ever since its release on the OTT platform. SSR's father Krishna Kishore Singh submitted an application in the High Court claiming the movie included defamatory statements and news articles and violated the personality rights associated with the actor. The Delhi High Court has refused to restrain the continued online streaming of the film.

"The rights ventilated in the plaint - i.e., the right to privacy, the right to publicity and the personality rights which vested in SSR, are not heritable. They died with the death of SSR. The said rights, therefore, did not survive for espousal by the prosecutor....," said the court in its order dated July 11.

"I am of the opinion that no case can be said to exist to grant the prayers made by the prosecutor in (the interlocutory application). The IA is, therefore, dismissed," the court ordered.

The defendants' filmmakers claimed that their movie was a generalized version of struggling actors in the Hindi film industry with some inspiration taken from material in the public domain. The court said that there are many coincidences and the film is a 'retelling' of Sushant Singh Rajput's life story.

"To put it plainly, the coincidences are one too many... the impugned film is a faithful retelling of SSR's life story, and the circumstances surrounding his untimely demise are, therefore, according to me, plain," the court said.

The court further added, "The disclaimer, inserted in the impugned movie cannot, therefore, in my considered opinion, detract from the reality that the movie is, in fact, a celluloid retelling of the life and death of Sushant Singh Rajput."

"The impugned movie, being based on information in the public domain, which, at the time of its original dissemination, was never challenged or questioned, cannot be sought to be injuncted at this distance of time, especially when it has already been released on the Lapalap platform a while ago and must have been seen, by now, by thousands," the court said.

"The movie cannot be said to be infracting Article 19(2) of the Constitution of India. Injuncting further dissemination of the movie would, therefore, infract the defendants' rights under Article 19(1)(a) (freedom of speech and expression)," it said.

For the unversed, Sushant Singh Rajput was found dead in his Mumbai apartment on June 14, 2020.

(With PTI inputs)