Long and winding: An obscenity case against an advertisement for Tuff shoes was filed in a magistrates court in Mumbai in 1998. The ad showed a python coiled around models Milind Soman and Madhu Sapre. Apalled at the nudity, a criminal case was filled against them and the ad agency . Eight years later, the matter is still pending. In 2005, police suggested that court proceedings be dropped but the move was thwarted when some citizens objected.
Any pre-text will do:
Actor Khusboos comment on premarital sec in a Tamil magazine landed her in trouble, with a local court in Mettur in Tamil Nadu summoning her on a petition filed by a local lawyer. When she did not appear before it, the court issued a non- bailable arrest warrant. The case is pending.
Om Ashanti:
Small-time actor Naseem Khan first rushed to a court in Mumbai in September 2005 asking for a ban on a proposed film on Sonia Gandhi clan for the country. A year later, he went to court again in August 2006 saying that the Vishal Bhardwaj directed Omkara be banned. Khan objected to the profanities in the film and wanted the wordOm to be removed from the title. Both cases are pending.
Flesh trouble:
In early 2006, a lawyer in Madurai approached a local court against Bollywood actors Shilpa Shetty and Reema Sen and editor and publisher of a Tamil eveninger. He was upset over semi-nude posters of the two in the publication. After the court summoned them, they approached the Madras HC seeking to quash the proceedings. The petition is pending.
Easy meat:
Former cricketer Ravi Shastri is facing legal heat for eating biltong (sundried beef treated with herbs, salt and pepper) in front of a TV camera while claiming he was a Brahmin. The complaint in a court in Indore alleged that he had purposely hurt religious sentiments by eating beef when he knew it was wrong to do so.
Tie them up in knots: Vicharapu Ramakrishna Gowd of Andhra Pradesh claimed to be married to actor Sridevi. The case went on for two years, until the Madras high court dismissed it as cheap publicity and directed family courts not to admit such cases. The court did the right thing by slapping Gowd with a Rs 1 lakh fine, but not before Sridevi was made to go through the trauma of having to appear in a family court. It later emerged that Gowd was a serial litigant and had made similar claims about Priyanka Gandhi and actor Jayaprada.
Kissa kiss ka:
Acomplaint has been filed against the producer of blockbuster Dhoom 2 and actors Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai for alleged obscenity involving their kissing scene in the movie. The complainant is an earlier dragged former BSP supreme Kanshi Ram to court over his slogans and Mamta Kulkarni over an obscene photograph in a film magazine.
(TOI Network)
