Court Stays ‘MAHARAJ’ Release. What next?

High Court gives stay order to Aamir Khan’s son Junaid Khan’s debut film ‘Maharaj’ till June 18.

Bharatendu Singh | HENB | New Delhi | June 13, 2024::The release of Yash Raj Films’ ‘Maharaj’ on Netflix tomorrow (June 14) is now withheld. The Gujarat high court today (June 13) granted an ex parte temporary stay on the film’s release on a petition filed by a group of Hindus. The petitioners stated that the film would hurt the religious sentiments of the community.

As such, Aamir Khan’s son Junaid Khan’s film ‘Maharaj’ has found itself in real trouble as Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) was against its release. The film revolves around a religious head of the vaishnav community and the VHP had appealed to the court to ban the film’s release as it was hurting religious sentiments. A source has now informed HENB , that a hearing took place in Ahmedabad today and also in Mumbai. Though the proceeding details of Mumbai is still unavailable with HENB, the direction of of Gujarat High Court is now clear to all concerned.

The film, which has been in the eye of a controversy since almost 10 days, shows a Hindu religious leader of the nineteenth century in the state of Gujarat in negative light. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Bajrang Dal, Hindu Janajagruti Samiti among others, have been asking members of the Hindu community to boycott the film if not revised thoroughly. The film is starring Junaid Khan, Shalini Pandey,  Jaideep Ahlawat, Sharvari Wagh and directed by Siddharth P. Malhotra.

As per Etimes,  it is  learnt that advocate J SAI DEEPAK is fighting the case for VHP while there were 26 lawyers who were fighting the case today (June 13), in Mumbai on behalf of Yash Raj Films.

The Gujarat  High Court has now passed a stay order on the film till June 18. The stay order reads, “Today on Urgency few devotees and follower of Pushti margi Vaishav panth approached Gujarat High Court Vide SCA/8772/24 after hearing of at length Gujarat High Court issued notice to the broadcasting authority, Central board of Film Certification and Producer of the film “Maharaj” Yash Raj Film ,OTT Netflix and make it returnable on 18/6, till returnable date high court granted stay on broadcasting release on OTT and media of Movie MAHARAJ”.

Accordingly, the film which was supposed to release on Netflix from June 14 onwards, however, now with the stay order, it is not going to release till June 18. Furthermore, a reliable source has informed us that the matter might be taken to Supreme court. But whether or not, this stay order is lifted, after June 18, will be known in the next hearing.

Meanwhile, Ysah Raj Film and Netflix have taken a ‘no comments’ stance on this matter at the moment. But, devoute Hindus have taken a vow to resist any humiliation on their faith and sentiments by the Bollywood industries so far.
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__Inputs fro Etimes and Film Information.