Shah Rukh Khan holding sword, not kirpan in Zero poster: Makers tell Bombay High Court

Agencies
December 1, 2018

Mumbai, Dec 1: The makers of Zero told the Bombay High Court Friday that lead actor Shah Rukh Khan was holding a sword and not a ‘kirpan’ in the movie’s poster and trailer. A division bench of Justices B P Dharmadhikari and S V Kotwal was hearing a petition filed by advocate Amritpal Singh Khalsa, claiming that the movie’s trailer and poster has hurt sentiments of the Sikh community.

The petition, filed earlier this month, sought a direction to the film’s director and producers to delete the scenes where Shah Rukh is seen wearing a ‘kirpan’ (a sword or small dagger carried by Sikhs). The petition also sought a direction to the Central Board for Film Certification (CBFC) not to grant certification to the movie or to revoke it in case it has already been given.

Senior counsel Narvoze Serwai, appearing for Shah Rukh Khan, producers Gauri Khan and Karuna Badwal, and director Anand L Rai, told the court Friday that the petition is based entirely on an “erroneous assumption”.

“What the lead actor is wearing is not a kirpan. It is an ordinary sword,” Serwai told the court.

The court then sought to know if the film has been granted certification from the censor board.

To this, CBFC counsel Advait Sethna said the same was pending. He further told the court that the poster in question was not part of the trailer submitted by the film makers while seeking certification. The court has asked the censor board to examine the allegations and points raised in the petition while considering the movie for certification.

“Let the CBFC examine and carry out scrutiny in the light of the points raised in the petition. We refrain from making any remarks at this stage,” Justice Dharmadhikari said. The bench then posted the petition for further hearing on December 18. The movie is slated for release on December 21.

The petition refers to the film’s poster in which Khan is seen wearing a vest and shorts, with a garland of Rs 500 notes around his neck and a ‘kirpan’ tied diagonally across his chest. Khalsa took exception to this scene and referred to the historical and cultural importance of ‘kirpan’, saying it is worn after taking ‘rehat maryada’ (conversion to the Sikhism).

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News Network
July 3,2020

Mumbai, Jun 3: Investigators will subject the cloth allegedly used by actor Sushant Singh Rajput to hang himself to "tensile strength" analysis to determine whether it can bear the weight similar to that of the filmstar, as part of probe into his death, an official said on Friday.

Rajput (34) was found hanging at his suburban Bandra residence on June 14.

According to the investigators, the actor ended his life by hanging himself from the ceiling using a green coloured night gown made of cotton.

No suicide note was found from the spot, the police had said then.

Besides viscera from the actors body, the police also sent the gown for chemical and forensic analysis at the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) in suburban Kalina, he said.

It will take at least three more days to get final forensic report, the official said.

To ascertain the exact cause of death, forensic experts will check pattern of ligature marks around the actors neck and also determine the strength of the gown with the help of "tensile strength" analysis, he said.

The tensile strength test will technically establish whether the cloth can bear around 80kg, the weight of the actor, he said.

The test will help determine if there was any foul play, the official said.

Tensile strength is maximum load that a material can support without fracture when being stretched.

Viscera analysis will help in checking whether there were any traces of chemical, poisonous or narcotics substance in his body, the official said.

"Usually, it takes eight to ten working days to get s report from the FSL in regular cases. But since this case is sensitive, experts are taking more precautions to avoid any kind of error in their analysis," the official said.

The forensic report of the actors mobile phone is also awaited, he said.

Recently, the police received the final post-mortem report of the actor from Cooper Hospital, which mentioned the cause of the death as asphyxia due to hanging"

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Agencies
January 4,2020

Mumbai, Jan 4: After the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur constituted a panel to decide whether legendary poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz's poem 'Hum Dekhenge' is offensive to Hindu sentiments, filmmaker Shoojit Sircar had a cryptic take on the burning controversy.

"Best time for the rich & small businesses to make money as most of the population are engaged with a revolutionary poet named Faiz," Sircar said in a tweet.

The poem, penned down by the iconic poet in 1979, came into limelight again recently during the protests against CAA and NRC in IIT Kanpur.

Earlier on Thursday, senior lyricist Javed Akhtar rejected the claims about the poem being 'anti-Hindu'.

IIT Kanpur on Thursday had set up a committee to look into the issue.

The move came after a complaint that the students who took out a peaceful march in the campus on December 17 against the Citizenship Amendment Act and in solidarity with Jamia Millia Islamia students, sung it as a mark of protest, which hurt the sentiments of other communities.

The CAA grants citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Parsis, Buddhists and Christians who faced religious persecution in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh and came to India on or before December 31, 2014.

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News Network
April 24,2020

Mumbai, Apr 24: A complaint has been filed with police against Bollywood actor Kangana Ranaut for allegedly referring to members of a particular community as a terrorist in a video released in support of her sister Rangoli Chandel, an official said on Friday.

The complaint was filed by a lawyer, Ali Kashif Khan Deshmukh, at the suburban Amboli Police Station on Wednesday.

The Twitter account of Chandel, who is also the 33- year-old actor's manager, recently got suspended for alleged hate speech.

According to the complaint, while supporting her sister, Ranaut, in the video, allegedly referred to members of a particular community as "terrorist", the official said.

Ranaut had released the video some time back.

Following the release of the video, Deshmukh submitted an application to the Amboli police seeking registration of a case against the actor, the official said.

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