SRK's Red Chillies hits back at Sameer Wankhede over B***ds of Bollywood case: ‘Official cannot be that thin-skinned'

Bollywood icon Shah Rukh Khan's production house Red Chillies Entertainment, on Wednesday, defended itself in the defamation case filed by Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer Sameer Wankhede over the Aryan Khan-directed web series The Ba***ds of Bollywood.

Acknowledging that the show draws inspiration from overzealous officers, Red Chillies' counsel, senior advocate Neeraj Kishan Kaul, argued in the Delhi High Court that the web series does not depict or directly reference the Cordelia cruise case, which triggered the defamation lawsuit.

“Can satire and fiction co-exist? There is no law that it cannot co-exist. I may be partly inspired by real persons and stories yet there can be disclaimers, no problem with two existing together. Where is the ill-will or malice? This is about a success story in a Bollywood party,” Kaul said, reported Hindustan Times.

"We are not looking at people who are sensitive; hurt is not ground for malice. Can you pick a stray instance, a passage here or there? The series is about 20 different issues. We do not show a documentary on the Cordelia cruise incident. I am inspired by overzealous officers. That is far from saying that this is the Cordelia cruise story," the Red Chillies Entertainment counsel added.

“You cannot say that the person depicting ills in Bollywood cannot show overzealous officers. I cannot be responsible for what other people say… I am fully entitled to depict issues ailing Bollywood. Even if I am to project someone, a public official cannot be that thin-skinned,” Kaul further added, arguing for Red Chillies.

The Delhi HC is slated to hear arguments on behalf of Netflix on Thursday.

The defamation suit

Sameer Wankhede's defamation suit against SRK's production house stems from the 2021 Cordelia cruise case, when Aryan Khan made headlines after his name got involved in a high-profile drug bust during a rave party on board the Goa-bound Cordelia Empress cruise ship.

The young Bollywood filmmaker was subsequently arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) and was imprisoned, spending three weeks in jail prior to his release.

Aryan was later given a clean chit in the case.

After the release of the web series, Wankhede filed a defamation case, alleging that the show mocked him and contained "false, malicious, and defamatory content" aimed at damaging the IRS officer's reputation.