Chhapaak: Fox Star Studio claims Aparna Bhat has no right to seek acknowledgment, Delhi HC reserves order

The Delhi High Court today reserved its order in a plea by Chhapaak Producer, Fox Star Studio challenging the trial court order directing it to include the name of the acid attack survivor, Laxmi Agarwal's lawyer, Aparna Bhat, in acknowledgments during the screening of the film.

Orders were reserved by a Single Judge Bench of Justice Prathiba M Singh. The order will be pronounced tomorrow at 10.30 am.

Yesterday, the Court of Additional Senior Civil Judge had ordered Fox, KA Productions and Director Meghna Gulzar to add a slide on the actual footage and the images of the film with the line ‘Aparna Bhat continues to fight the cases of sexual and physical violence against women’ during the screening of the film.

Senior Advocates Rajiv Nayar and Sandeep Sethi, who appeared for Fox Star Studio and Meghna Gulzar, respectively, argued that Aparna Bhat had no legal right, statutory or contractual, to seek acknowledgement for her contribution in the film in the form of consultation, inputs and documents.

Sethi informed that Court that in fact, Gulzar did not "acknowledge" any person in this film or even in her earlier film 'Talwar'.

Sethi also placed on record a WhatsApp exchange between Bhat and Gulzar on the issue.

Nayar assailed the trial court order and argued that no case was made out for the grant of an ad interim ex parte mandatory injunction.

Nayar also pointed out that in terms of the Bar Council of India Rules, there was a complete bar on Advocates to solicit or advertise their work, directly or indirectly.

Appearing for Aparna Bhat, Senior Advocate S Parikh argued that the conduct of the film makers amounted to breach of trust and her claim seeking acknowledgement in the film was not only based on promissory estoppel but "something higher".

Parikh stated that Bhat offered her assistance to the making of the film pro bono, pursuant to which substantial changes were made to the film.

The Court was further informed that such assistance was based on Bhat's communication with Gulzar that her contribution would be acknowledged.

To support this contention, Parikh placed on record a rough draft of the film's script that was shared by Gulzar with Bhat and included the following as part of the end credits of the film:

“Aparna Bhat continues to fight cases of sexual and physical violence against women."

After hearing the parties at length and watching the opening credits of the film, the Court proceeded to reserve orders in the plea.

Read Petition