The controversy began after Netflix dropped Aryan Khan’s directorial project, ‘The Ba***ds of Bollywood’. The show features a character who resembles a drug enforcement officer.
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The story of Aryan Khan and his controversial past is back in the headlines again. This time, it’s not about real-life raids or arrests, but a fight over a web series. Former IRS officer Sameer Wankhede, who led the high-profile Mumbai cruise drug bust in 2021, has filed a defamation suit against Aryan Khan, his new project, Netflix, and Shah Rukh Khan’s production company, Red Chillies Entertainment.
The case has moved to the Delhi High Court, where Sameer Wankhede is demanding that the series be stopped and a permanent injunction placed against it. He is also seeking damages worth ₹2 crore, which, he says, he will donate for cancer treatment at Tata Memorial Hospital.
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The controversy began after Netflix dropped Aryan Khan’s directorial project, ‘The Ba***ds of Bollywood’. The show, produced by Red Chillies Entertainment, reportedly features a character who resembles a drug enforcement officer.
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The scenes, according to Wankhede, appear to be a direct reference to the 2021 cruise party raid, which he himself had supervised.
In the series, the officer character raids a party. This looks much like the real-life incident when Aryan was arrested. Wankhede has claimed that the portrayal is defamatory, malicious, and biased against him.
He further argues that the content damages the image of anti-drug enforcement agencies.
One scene in particular drawn sharp objections. Wankhede says the officer character in the series shouts the national motto, “Satyamev Jayate”, but then immediately makes an obscene gesture. He calls this an insult to the slogan, which is part of India’s national emblem, and has claimed that it violates the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971.
According to him, this is not just defamation but also offensive to national sentiments. His petition further mentions that the web series might have broken laws under the Information Technology Act, in addition to the Indian Penal Code.
For Aryan Khan, the shadow of the October 2021 Mumbai cruise raid still looms large. That night, Wankhede and his team from the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) raided a luxury ship, claiming to have found drugs at a party. Aryan, along with several others, were in the custody under the NDPS Act after this incident.
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