ENTERTAINMENT

The Bombay High Court on Friday refused to restrain media organisations and social media platforms from publishing information related to actor Shilpa Shetty and her husband Raj Kundra, who has been arrested for allegedly producing and distributing porn films.

Shilpa Shetty had moved the high court on Thursday accusing the media and social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube of publishing defamatory content about her on their platforms.

Hearing the matter, Justice Gautam Patel said what Shilpa Shetty is seeking in her plea will "have a chilling effect on the freedom of press". He added, "Reportage of something based on what police have said is not defamatory."

Theatres or no theatres, piracy continues to remain rampant and impact the film industries. Almost every direct-to-OTT release so far has been leaked for free downloads online, and the latest case has taken things to the next level.

Kriti Sanon’s Mimi, originally slated for an OTT release on July 30, got leaked four days before its actual date, forcing makers to prepone their plans. Director of the film, Laxman Utekar agrees that piracy led to this.

“We came to know in the morning that it was leaked. It was Dinu’s (producer Dinesh Vijan) birthday, and then July 27 was Kriti’s birthday, so we decided that we might as well take that as an opportunity,” he tells us, adding that it was “unbelievable”.

Author Ashish Kaul had filed a copyright infringement case against Queen star Kangana Ranaut over the film, Manikarnika Returns: The Legend of Didda. Now, a new development has been brought to light in the matter. As per a report by the Times of India, the writer has now filed a contempt petition in the Bombay High Court against the Dhaakad star. Legal representatives of the writer told the daily that Kangana has concealed facts while renewing her passport and now it is their duty to bring this matter to the fore. 

The representatives said, “We served a letter to Javed Akhtar Ji and found out through his reply that there was concealing of facts in the Passport Application and this is a serious offence. We are duty-bound to bring this to the notice of the Hon'ble High Court and if fraud committed upon the court is established then there are bound to be repercussions.”

The Mumbai Crime Branch continues to investigate the adult film racket case that has come to the surface. On July 19, Raj Kundra, a  businessman, and husband of Shilpa Shetty was arrested in the alleged case. Officials investigating the case raided Shilpa’s and Raj’s residence in Juhu. The police also took a statement from Shilpa Shetty as they searched their house.

It has been reported that the actress broke down and shouted at the businessman asking him “what was the need to do all this”, during the raid. As mentioned in a report in a news channel, police sources informed that Shilpa shouted at Kundra when he was brought to their home in Mumbai by the police for the first time since his arrest. "We have everything, what was the need to do all this," the actress reportedly said to Raj.  

In connection with the pornography racket businessman Raj Kundra is currently involved in, the Mumbai Crime Branch has now directed that two bank accounts belonging to actor Shilpa Shetty`s husband Raj at Kanpur be seized, bank officials said. 

The reason being many crores of Rupees had been deposited in these two bank accounts, the official revealed. 

After the bank accounts were seized, another matter related to Kundra came to light. Reportedly, Arvind Srivastava ran the production company of Raj Kundra and the money was being transferred to Arvind Srivastava's wife Harshita, sources informed. While speaking to a news agency, Arvind's father, NP Srivastava said, 'In the last two years, Arvind has not come home and he sends money from time to time in the name of household expenses.