The legal battle between Shah Rukh Khan’s production house and former NCB officer Sameer Wankhede over the Netflix series Ba**ds of Bollywood* has taken a major turn, with the Delhi High Court declining to hear the case.
On Thursday, January 29, the court dismissed Wankhede’s suit seeking the removal of certain scenes from the series, ruling that it lacked territorial jurisdiction.
The decision effectively ends the matter in Delhi, leaving Wankhede the option to pursue relief before an appropriate court elsewhere.
Wankhede – a former Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) officer – had approached the Delhi High Court alleging that a scene appeared between 32:02 and 33:50 of Episode 1 of the Aryan Khan-created series were defamatory and designed to damage his reputation. His complaint focused on a specific segment of the episode in which a character appears that he claims closely resembles him in appearance, behaviour and mannerisms.
The former NCB officer argued that the portrayal cast him in a negative light and that media coverage following the show’s release further amplified the alleged reputational harm. He also pointed out that departmental proceedings connected to him are based in Delhi and that the series was widely promoted in the capital.
However, Shah Rukh Khan’s production banner Red Chillies Entertainment and streaming platform Netflix strongly opposed the plea. Their legal teams argued that the Delhi High Court did not have jurisdiction since both Wankhede’s residence and Red Chillies’ registered office are located in Mumbai. They also maintained that the series is a work of fiction and satire and does not recreate or reference the 2021 Cordelia cruise ship raid.
For the unversed, Aryan Kham was arrested by Wankhede during the 2021 NCB raid on a cruise ship, though he and five others were later cleared by the agency in 2022.