United States-based media service provider Netflix told the Delhi High Court on Tuesday that it has not changed an allegedly objectionable word used to describe former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in its Sacred Games series, PTI reported.
Senior advocate Chander Lal, appearing for Netflix, also told the court that the media service provider had no intention of changing the word. “My instructions are that we don’t want to change the word,” he said.
Last month, an advocate filed a petition in the Delhi High Court, demanding that certain scenes from the show be deleted. Petitioner Nikhil Bhalla had claimed that the scenes were derogatory towards Rajiv Gandhi. Youth Indian National Trade Union Congress President Suresh Shyamal Gupta had the same complaint, about a scene in which the former prime minister is described as “fattu”. “Fattu” was translated as “pussy” in English. But the counsel had told the court last month that the word was then changed to “wimp”.
On Tuesday, Chander Lal told the court that the series is available in several languages, and the objectionable word exists only in one of the versions. The court was hearing a petition by Bhalla, who has also contended that the show, starring actors Saif Ali Khan and Nawazuddin Siddiqui, “incorrectly depicts historical events of the country like Bofors case, Shah Bano case, Babri Masjid case and communal riots”.
However, Congress President Rahul Gandhi had said last month that the show should not be censored, because “the views of a character on a fictional web series can never change” the fact that his father had “lived and died in the service of India”.
The court has fixed the matter for further hearing on September 20.
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