Rajiv Gandhi line to remain in Sacred Games, Netflix will not change any subtitles

Sacred Games, directed by Vikramaditya Motwane and Anurag Kashyap, had courted controversy over alleged objectionable content. Online streaming platform Netflix, through its counsel, had written to the Delhi high court, that it has not deleted any sub-titles and will not be deleting any word from the web-series.

“My instructions are that we don't want to change the word," senior advocate Chander Lal, legal counsel for Netflix is said to have told the Delhi high court, as reported by Press Trust of India.

The matter is being heard by a bench of justices Sanjiv Khanna and Chander Shekhar.

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“Nobody is pressing or forcing you. You take your own decision, whether you want to change the word or not. We are not going to compel you," the bench said during the hearing.

An objection was raised by a few Congress workers over the way former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi was mocked in one of the episodes. Their opposition was, however, in personal capacity.

Delhi resident Nikhil Bhalla, through his advocate, had filed a plea in the Delhi high court accusing the web series of incorrectly depicting historical events of the country like the Bofors case, Shah Bano case, Babri Masjid and the communal riots. Bhalla had demanded that the objectionable content be deleted.

The matter has been posted for hearing on 20 September.

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The objectionable content pertains to Nawazuddin Siddiqui's character Ganesh Gaitonde talking about the Shah Bano case of 1985 where the then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi and his Congress party allegedly overturned the Supreme Court verdict in a bid to not offend the Muslim votebank. In episode four of Sacred Games, Gaitonde refers to Gandhi as a 'fattu' (coward).