New Delhi: Ekta Kapoor’s Balaji Telefilms Ltd is in damage control mode after the Gandii Baat controversy landed the queen of soaps and her mother Shobha in a POCSO case.
“Shobha Kapoor and Ms Ekta Kapoor are not involved in the day to day operations of the company and the same are managed by separate teams, including its content strategy,” read a statement by Alt Balaji Telefilms, released Wednesday.
Both women have been booked by the Mumbai police under various sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 for allegedly showing inappropriate scenes involving minor girls in an episode of the sixth season of the raunchy show.
Gandii Baat has been the most successful offering on the ALTT app, renewed for six consecutive seasons from 2018 to 2023. The episode under the scanner aired in 2021, but it was only on 18 October that Mumbai police booked a case based on a complaint. The show’s trailer, which garnered over 25 million views in 2022, has now been removed from YouTube.
Police questioned Kapoor and her mother on 22 October, and the next round of questioning will be on 24 October.
“The company has complete faith in the judiciary and is fully cooperating with the authorities in the investigation. Since the matter is subjudice, the company refrains from commenting in detail,” the statement added.
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Not Kapoor’s first rodeo
This is not the first time Gandii Baat has roused public sentiment, or for that matter, Kapoor’s first run-in with the law. In 2023, the series’ poster created controversy, after some X users accused the showrunners of mocking the Hindu deity Lakshmi.
But it was another erotic web series by ALT Balaji, XXX (2018-2020), that saw even the defence ministry involved. In 2020, the ministry wrote to the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) seeking a no-objection certificate (NOC) before telecasting movies or web series based on the Army. Dated 27 July 2020, the letter stated that the second season of XXX allegedly depicted the Army in a “distorted manner”. One episode, in particular, had reportedly hurt the sentiments of the Armed Forces and their families.
The episode, ‘Pyaar Aur Plastic’, first aired on 8 February 2020 and showed an Army officer’s wife having an affair. At one point in the episode, the wife makes her lover wear her husband’s Army uniform during sex.
Responding to severe backlash and multiple police complaints, producer Ekta Kapoor deleted the scene in question and issued an apology.
While signing actors for XXX in 2015, Kapoor had added a ‘nudity clause’ to the contracts. The show was not renewed for new seasons after 2020, the same year the Army took offence to the episode.
The controversial Gandii Baat episode has been taken down.
(Edited by Prasanna Bachchhav)
Ekta Kapoor and her family is into porn movie production and distribution. Platforms like AltBalaji are nothing but soft porn outlets.
The whole family should be prosecuted and put behind bars.