The Delhi High Court on Friday (September 26, 2025) questioned the maintainability of a defamation swimsuit filed by Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer Sameer Wankhede against the Netflix series ‘The Ba***ds of Bollywood’ directed by Aryan Khan and produced by Shah Rukh Khan and Gauri Khan’s Red Chillies Entertainment.
Mr. Wankhede has sought a route against the series, a declaration that it’s defamatory, and damages of ₹2 crore, which he has pledged to donate to Tata Memorial Cancer Hospital.
At the outset of the listening to, Justice Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav requested Mr. Wankhede how his case was maintainable in Delhi and whether or not any half of the trigger of motion arose within the Capital.
Senior advocate Sandeep Sethi, representing Mr. Wankhede, mentioned the online series is supposed for throughout cities, together with Delhi, and the officer has been defamed right here.
The choose, nonetheless, requested Mr. Wankhede to amend his plea to particularly present how a sound trigger of motion had arisen in Delhi.
Mr. Wankhede, who headed the Narcotics Control Bureau’s (NCB) 2021 cruise ship raid that resulted within the arrest of actor Shah Rukh Khan’s son, claims the series maligns him personally and seeks to discredit anti-drug enforcement businesses. Aryan Khan was later cleared of all costs in 2022, with the NCB concluding that no medicine had been discovered on him.
Mr. Wankhede’s plea mentioned, “This series disseminates a misleading and negative portrayal of anti-drug enforcement agencies, thereby eroding public confidence in law enforcement institutions.”
It additional claimed that “the series has been deliberately conceptualised and executed with the intent to malign Sameer Wankhede’s reputation in a colourable and prejudicial manner”.
It additionally pointed to an outline within the series of a personality making an obscene gesture — “specifically, showing a middle finger after the character recites the slogan Satyamev Jayate which is part of the National Emblem”.
Mr. Wankhede mentioned this act constitutes a violation of the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971, attracting penal penalties.
Additionally, the plea alleged that the series contravenes provisions of the Information Technology Act and the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) because it “seeks to outrage national sentiment through the use of obscene and offensive material”.