Anil Kapoor, Subhash Ghai get court notices

The Delhi high court issued notices to Anil Kapoor and Subhash Ghai over on a petition filed by a Delhi University professor seeking a ban on the screening of their recent film, Black And White, alleging that it was anti-Muslim.

Petitioner Dr Khalid Alvi, head of the Urdu department at the Zakir Hussain college, contended before Justice Geeta Mittal that the film portrays his community in a bad light and its screening should be stayed.

The petitioner alleged that the protagonist of the film, a professor of Zakir Hussain college, is based on his character, which has been wrongly portrayed. The students and the staff of the college were shocked that the college was used with such a malafide and inimical intention of the filmmaker, hand-in-glove with the censor board, to malign their community as anti-national and unpatriotic, the petition said.

"The producer, director, the actor and the scriptwriter have intentionally produced the film with an anti-Muslim angle. The film is communally inflammable," advocate Asad Alvi, appearing for the professor, said.

Taking note of the plea, the court sought a response from the Centre and the censor board.

The petitioner alleged that the film shows his community as harbouring a terrorist, which it should not have been allowed by the censor board.

After a brief hearing, Justice Mittal directed all the parties to file their replies by May 23, when the matter would be taken up for further hearing.

The film produced and directed by Subhash Ghai was released in India last month.