In our country, people take offence at the littlest things: hurting of religious sentiments, factual or historical inaccuracies, allegations of defamation, and so many others. Movies and movie makers are most frequently targeted by the hurt-brigade. The upcoming SRK starrer Raees has recently come under fire for allegedly defamatory portrayal of a real person.
SRK and makers of Raees sued
The upcoming Shah Rukh Khan starrer Raees is a movie based on the life of gangster Abdul Latif who was wanted for over 40 cases including murders, kidnappings and the 1993 Mumbai blasts case. A known aide of Dawood Ibrahim, he was shot dead in a police encounter in 1997. His son Mushtaq Sheikh has now sued SRK along with Gauri Khan, Farhan Akhtar, director Rahul Dholakia and producer Ritesh Sidhwani for the negative portrayal of Latif, someone who had a ‘high reputation’ in society. Sheikh wants to stop the promos, trailers and release of the film.
Pre-release controversies are not new
Though many grievances may be very genuine, several of these suits filed close to the release date of a film (the release date of Raees is 6 July 2016) appear on the face of it, to be of a coercive nature. Some may file a suit hoping to extract money, others try to garner some publicity for themselves or their cause by attacking a target as visible and high profile as a movie with top stars. Much of this smacks of blackmail. Movies such as Aarakshan, Ramleela, Goliyon ki Raas Leela, Bajirao Mastaani, PK, Haider and many others have invited such pre-release controversy; many of which appear to have no particular merit; just nuisance value.
What does the controversy do to or for the film?
It is rare that a controversy harms the fortunes of a film. Mostly it garners publicity and increases interest in the film; acting like an (at times) costly film promotion. Of course if the film is bad, it will probably still flop, but the controversy serves to buoy up that pre-release anticipation among movie goers that seems to do it no harm.
This then raises another question – are these controversies spontaneous or staged? Are they based on the principle that no publicity is bad publicity; and do filmmakers connive at or surreptitiously fuel these controversies? What do you think? Do express your views in the comments below and meanwhile watch the teaser trailer of Raees here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iv3ksZs0hk
Author – Reena Daruwalla
