'Sacred Games' faces legal case over portrayal of former PM

Sacred Games, Netflix's first Indian original series is facing a legal case, over its controversial maligning of the image of late Indian PM Rajiv Gandhi. An FIR was lodged by Nikhil Bhalla, a lawyer and a member of the opposition Congress party to delete “offensive scenes” and derogatory remarks about former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in the Indian web series.

According to the complaint, in the fourth episode of the web series, a wanted criminal named Ganesh Gaitonde played by Nawazuddin Siddiqui, refers to the late Indian PM as a “phattu”, a Hindi slang for a coward.

India does not censor content on the Internet, but movies and television are both heavily censored. The petition also said that in the name of freedom of speech, not everything can be beamed in every home without regard to its impact on society.

The Delhi High Court has dismissed calls for penalising actors in the Netflix original show Sacred Games saying, “actors cannot be held liable for dialogues”. The Delhi High Court has adjourned the case on Thursday to give judges and respondents time to study the petition filed.

The series, Sacred Games, is a thriller set in Mumbai with a cast of police officers, spies and politicians. It is based on a 2006 novel by Vikram Chandra. The novel won critical praise for its gritty portrayal of Mumbai's crime scene and politics.