New Delhi: Chartered accounts have taken umbrage at Netflix’s latest offering Tribhuvan Mishra CA Topper. The six-part series on the crazy adventures of a CA from Noida who pivots to become a gigolo upends the stereotype of the staid profession.
But the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) is not planning to give up just yet even though the Delhi High Court Thursday refused to impose an interim stay on the release of the series.
“The original defamation suit was filed based on the trailer. But with the show being out, we may take a long hard look at other issues in the show as well before taking further legal recourse,” said a senior official from ICAI who did not want to be named.
A CA and a gigolo
Tribhuvan Mishra CA Topper is created by Puneet Krishna, the co-creator of Amazon Prime Video’s Mirzapur. Its plot centres around a middle-class chartered accountant named Tribhuvan Mishra (Manav Kaul) who takes up work as a professional sex worker to pay off his debts.
What sets Mishra apart from his colleagues is that he is strictly against all sorts of bribery. He takes pride in being honest, often to the disapproval of his wife and extended family. His life is upended when the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) freezes his bank accounts where he has kept his entire life savings. To deal with this crisis, he registers himself on a website that offers paid sex services to women.
But he’s a hit as a gigolo and earns much more than he had imagined. However, tension peaks when one of his loyal clients, Bindi (Tillotama Shome), turns out to be the wife of a contract kidnapper and her husband finds out about this.
“In chartered accountancy, unlike in most other professions, 15-20 per cent pass, and [the] topper among them has to be exceptional. To show the topper in such light, except for TRP, what else could be the reason? It would impact anyone who aspires to be a chartered accountant in future,” senior advocate Amarjot Singh Chandhiok, who represented the plaintiffs, told ThePrint.
For the plaintiffs, the issue is also how terms like ‘services rendered’, ‘debit and credit’ and such terminology associated with accountancy are represented in the show.
“The entire profession being linked with sex work is the issue here,” added Chandiok.
Woes of the past
This is not the first time Netflix has faced legal woes over its Indian content. In June 2024, Aamir Khan’s son Junaid Khan’s debut film faced a legal battle at the Gujarat High Court. His film, Maharaj, is about the1862 Maharaj Libel Case.
A petition was filed by members of the Vaishnavite Pushtimargi sect who claimed the film defamed their community and its release could spark communal tensions. After reviewing the film, the court lifted the stay. Earlier this year, the Karnataka High Court had decided to file contempt proceedings against the streaming platform and makers of the documentary Wild Karnataka before the Supreme Court intervened.
(Edited by Humra Laeeq)