Ahmedabad local court on Thursday issued notices to actors Shah Rukh Khan, Farhan Akhtar, director Rahul Dholakia and four others following a defamation suit of Rs 101 crore by slain gangster Adul Latif’s son Mushtaq Shaikh, who alleged that upcoming movie Raees shows his father in bad light. Replies are to be filed by May 11. The film is reportedly based on Latif’s life. His son, Mushtaq, also sought injunction against the release of the film as well as its promotional material.
97 cases lodged against Latif in his life time. These cases were for bootlegging and serious offences under TADA, however, at no point he ran a brothel or used women for delivering liquor. By attributing such false claims in the movie trailer the respondents have defamed the family’s image in the society,” Gajjar said, adding that Latif was known for spending money on downtrodden people.
Besides Khan and Akhtar and Dholakia, Shaikh has also made Khan’s wife Gauri and producer Ritesh Sidhwani parties in the defamation suit. The film, starring Shah Rukh, Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Mahira Khan, tells the story of Raees Khan, a bootleggar who operated in 1980s Gujarat. It will release on July 3. Latif, wanted in dozens of cases of murder, kidnapping and bootlegging, was said to be a part of Dawood Ibrahim gang. He was arrested in 1995 and killed by police in 1997 while trying to escape from Sabarmati jail.
