The Delhi High Court on Thursday refused to stay the release of the film Faraaz, directed by Hansal Mehta.
Faraaz is based on the 2016 Dhaka terror attack and is scheduled for release tomorrow.
The mothers of two girls who died in the attack had approached the High Court seeking an injunction against the film’s release.
A single-judge bench had rejected their plea in October, which made them file an appeal in the higher court.
A Division Bench of Justice Siddharth Mridul and Justice Talwant Singh refused to stay the release but directed the producer of the film to scrupulously adhere to the disclaimer that the film is inspired by real events, but a work of fiction.
The Bench also went through the submission made by the producers’ counsel that there has been no use of any picture or image of the petitioners’ daughters in the movie.
Advocate Shyel Trehan, the counsel for the producers, has informed the bench that the film has been shown at many international film festivals, and has been distributed to cinema halls and so any change in it would be very difficult.
The petitioners said the names of the characters in the film sound phonetically similar to names of the girls who died. The petitioner also argued that the film shows real footage of the incident.
Justice Mridul reasoned and said that the memory span of people is not always great, besides no one remembers the names after six years. He added that this is not a sole incident as a fictional film can be based on true events.
The petitioner counsel was asked by the Court to obtain instructions about how they want to prosecute the matter now, and listed it for further consideration after two weeks.