Sameer Wankhede approached the Delhi High Court claiming that the series was defamatory.
The Delhi High Court on Tuesday (December 2, 2025) reserved its order on a plea filed by IRS official Sameer Wankhede seeking an interim injunction against the Netflix series The Ba***ds of Bollywood’. Mr Wankhede claimed the serial was defamatory and urged the court to order its removal.
After hearing all the parties, Justice Purushaindra Kaurav asked two questions to be decided at this stage and reserved the order on the preliminary plea.
The Court asks two questions – whether the suit is maintainable in Delhi and whether the impugned depiction, when viewed as a whole in context, prima facie crosses the threshold and changes from protected artistic expression to actionable damage to the reputation of Mr. Wankhede.
Mr. Wankhede’s counsel said the suit was maintainable in Delhi because his relatives who saw the show are based there, legal proceedings against him are pending there and the media houses that published articles against him are also based in the city.
However, Red Chillies Entertainment and OTT Platform Netflix opposed the plea saying it lacked territorial jurisdiction and the suit should have been filed in Mumbai instead of Delhi.
“Hypersensitive”
Netflix claimed that the show exposes Bollywood culture, satire and black comedy. It said that an officer should not be oversensitive to a one and a half minute satire when he himself admits it is satire.
In its response to Mr Wankhed’s interim application, Red Chillies said the series was “satire” and such depictions were permitted by law as a legitimate form of artistic expression and social commentary.
In his rejoinder to Red Chillies, Mr Wankhede said the “defamatory content” was created to settle personal scores with him and avenge the arrest of Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan in a 2021 drug case.
Published – 02 Dec 2025 20:57 IST
