Derogatory remarks infuriates Bata, Akshay, Annu Kapoor and makers get court summons
The brand has asked the makers to apologise both personally and via mainstream media for the allegedly derogatory trailer.
Mumbai: Just like its 1st installment, ‘Jolly LLB 2’ has landed in serious legal trouble. After garnering rave reviews for its quirky and rhetorical trailer, the makers have a legal situation to tackle.
Footwear giant Bata has sent legal notice to Fox Star Studios India, executive producer Naren Kumar, directors Deepak Jacob, Amit Shah and Subhash Kapoor, and actors Kapoor and Kumar for allegedly damaging the reputation of the brand by projecting it ‘in extremely bad taste’.
Following the defamation case, a Delhi court has issued summons to Akshay Kumar, Annu Kapoor, producer Fox Star Studios India Private Limited, Executive Producer Naren Kumar, writer Subhash Kapoor and others to appear on February 22.
In the legal notice Bata has claimed that the trailer has made objectionable, derogatory remark about the brand which, according to them, deserves a personal as wells as apology on public platforms like mainstream media.
Ironically, this courtroom drama will have to tackle this real life legal scuffle before the film sees the light of the day.
The scene in question is the one where Annu Kapoor and Akshay Kumar are engaged in a legal argument and the former comments on Akshay’s attire, saying: Varna kya….Bata ka joota pehan kar, tuchhi si terricot ki shirt pehan kar, saala humse zabaan lada rahe hain.
An angry Akshay retaliated with a thundering slap.
In the petition, the footwear baron said, “The dialogue is intended to convey that the brand BATA is adorned only by lower strata of society and one should feel humiliated if one wears BATA footwear, in fact the expression and reaction to such a dialogue by Akshay Kumar in the trailer shows that even the person to whom such a statement is hurled took the same extremely negatively and slapped Annu Kapoor in Open Court as if he has been severely abused in the dialogue or he has been hurled with deliberate effort to tarnish the brand image of Bata, “perhaps at the instance of some competitors of [Bata] whose products are promoted by Mr Akshay Kumar as a brand ambassador.”
The petition also highlighted the fact that Bata is a well-established 86 year-old brand with a huge clientele and boosts of being the parent company to over 1000 retail stores across India.
Contrary to the trailers allegedly defamatory remarks about the chain, BATA enjoys “…impeccable reputation amongst all classes of the Indian public which include a common middle class men, those from the higher strata and even the elitist of the elite lot of the Indian society.”