NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Thursday refused to put a stay on Hansal Mehta’s film ‘Faraaz’, which depicts the Holey Artisan cafe terror attack that shook Bangladesh in 2016. The film is scheduled to be released on February 3.
Hearing the appeal moved by mothers of two victims challenging the release of the movie on the ground of the right to privacy for their deceased daughters, a division bench of Justices Siddharth Mridul and Talwant Singh stressed that the film should ‘scrupulously adhere’ to the disclaimer showing that it is inspired by real events and a work of fiction.
The court, however, refused to stay the release of the film. The petitioner mothers’ initial plea was rejected by a single judge in October. During the last hearing, the court had asked the filmmaker Hansal Mehta and producers of the film to sit with the mothers and try to resolve the dispute and also told them to talk to the petitioner mothers if they are sensitive about the sentiments of a mother.
The court had told them “If you are naming the movie Faraaz, then you should know what Ahmed Faraaz stood for,” a reference to the renowned Pakistani Urdu poet Ahmed Faraz.”