All Is Well as ‘Ghooskhor Pandat’ Title Withdrawn and SC Dismisses Plea Against Netflix

On Thursday, the Supreme Court disposed of the plea against Netflix’s upcoming project “Ghooskhor Pandat” after its maker, Neeraj Pandey, shared that he had withdrawn the title of the project, along with promotional assets, from social media.

The plea seeking a stay on the release of the film was dismissed by the bench of justices B V Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan after taking the filmmaker’s affidavit on record. This, they hoped, would end all controversies surrounding the said film.

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Atul Mishra, national organization secretary of the Brahman Samaj of India, had filed the plea against the movie. In the affidavit, Neeraj Pandey shared that the new title of the Manoj Bajpayee-starrer has not been finalized, but it won’t be similar to the earlier one.

"I respectfully submit that the earlier title, 'Ghooskhor Pandat', stands unequivocally withdrawn and shall not be used in any manner whatsoever. While the new title has not yet been finalized, I undertake that any title that may hereafter be identified and adopted shall not be similar to, or evocative of, the earlier title in respect of which objections were raised, and shall accurately reflect the narrative and intent of the film without giving rise to unintended interpretations," Neeraj said.

"I further state that the film is a reformative, fictional police drama. The principal photography has been completed and the film is still at the editing stage. As a result, the film has not been released. I also state that all promotional material, posters, trailers and publicity content under the earlier title have already been withdrawn, prior to the listing of the present petition," he added.

In the hearing, Justice Nagarathna shared that they had a problem with the second word of the title and not the first one. "There was nothing wrong with the word 'Pandat,' but 'Pandat' with 'Ghooskhor'. We have a problem with the second word, not the first word," he asserted.

Emphasizing that the film doesn’t attempt to harm or insult any religion, Pandey added, "I state categorically and unequivocally that neither I nor my production house had any deliberate or malicious intention of outraging the religious feelings of any class of citizens of India. I further state that the film does not insult or attempt to insult any religion, or community or the religious beliefs of any class of citizens of India, whether by words, visual depiction, title, promotional material, electronic means, or otherwise." 

"I say that the film is a fictional police drama that revolves around a criminal investigation. The film does not portray any caste, religion, community, or sect as corrupt," said the producer of the Netflix movie.

Directed by Neeraj Pandey, the movie also features Nushrratt Bharuccha, Shraddha Das, Divya Dutta in key roles. The movie marks the reunion of Neeraj and Manoj after “Special 26” and  “Aiyaary.”