A legal battle is going on between IRS officer Sameer Wankhede and Shahrukh Khan’s production house Red Chillies Entertainment over the Netflix web series The Ba**ads of Bollywood directed by Aryan Khan. Wankhede has filed a Rs 2 crore defamation suit in the Delhi High Court, claiming that the show’s portrayal of a government official is an indirect portrayal of him and has caused damage to his reputation, especially in relation to the 2021 Cordelia Empress Cruise drug case involving Aryan Khan.
‘Not a documentary on Bollywood’s badass Cordelia Cruz incident’: Shah Rukh Khan-owned Red Chillies counters Sameer Wankhede’s defamation claim
In response, Red Chillies Entertainment opposed Wankhede’s plea for an interim injunction to stop streaming of the series. Senior advocate Neeraj Kishan Kaul, representing Red Chillies, argued that although the show takes inspiration from overzealous officers, it does not specifically depict or reference the Cordelia Cruz incident.
Kaul asserted, “Can satire and fantasy co-exist? There is no law that it can’t co-exist. I may be partly inspired by real persons and stories, yet disclaimer, there is no problem with two people existing together. Where is the ill-will or malice? This is a success story in a Bollywood party.”
He further argued, “We’re not looking at people who are sensitive, hurt is not grounds for malice. Can you pick a sporadic example, an excerpt here or there? The series is about 20 different issues. We don’t show a documentary on the Cordelia Cruz incident. I’m motivated by overzealous executives. It’s too far to say this is the Cordelia Cruz story.”
Kaul further claimed that Wankhede is fond of giving interviews to the media and said, “You can’t say that a person portraying the evils in Bollywood can’t show off overzealous officials. I can’t be responsible for what other people say… I am fully entitled to portray the bad issues of Bollywood. Even if I am projecting someone, a public official can’t be so thin-skinned,” on behalf of Red Chillies.
Concluding his argument, Kaul said, “Even if I portray you unjustly, that is still not the case. Every scene in this show is exaggerated. I am not ridiculing him or Pratik. I am talking about executives who have high thoughts.”
The next hearing is scheduled for November 27, 2025, where the court will hear arguments from Netflix.
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