Mumbai court bars filmmaker Abhinav Kashyap from making ‘defamatory’ comments against Salman Khan, family

Background

• Khan had approached the court against various ‘defamatory and derogatory’ remarks made by Kashyap, Mehru and Hazare against the actor and his family members in a video interview on the latter’s youtube channel called “Bollywood Thikana”.
• It has been alleged that the videos run into 26 episodes between September 2025 to December 2025.
• According to the suit filed through DSK legal, the actor has highlighted that Kashyap has made ‘grossly defamatory, derogatory, communally provocative and denigrating statements’ in the interview about the actor and his family members, which harm and malign the reputation and goodwill of the actor, before the world.
• It was alleged that in one of the videos uploaded on the channel “Bollywood Thikana”, the photograph of the actor, has been ‘deliberately’ placed side-by-side with the photograph of Dawood Ibrahim.
• The plea states that this reference against the actor is juxtaposition and is intended to malign him, lower his reputation and falsely associate him with criminality, underworld and anti-social elements.
• Khan has alleged that the statements/content are designed to tarnish the reputation that the actor has cultivated over decades.
• The plea reads that due to the extensive digital reach the videos have been broadcasted to a large and diverse audience, thereby continuously causing serious and irreparable harm to the actor’s reputation, both personally and professionally.
• It has been alleged that multiple parts/clips and extracts from the said Interviews have been reproduced, shared, reposted and circulated across the social media platforms such as Facebook, Reddit and Instagram.
• The plea further adds that the notice sent by the actor through his advocates calling upon the defendants to take down the defamatory statements/contents in the video has not been complied with by the defendants.
• It was submitted that the sole objective of the three defendants named aforesaid is to ‘threaten and damage the goodwill and reputation’ of the actor and his family before the public to serve their own ‘selfish interests of gaining sensational mileage and publicity’.
• Khan has contended that a person’s reputation is an inseparable element of an individual’s personality and it cannot be allowed to be tarnished in the name of the right to freedom of speech and expression.
• The actor has sought a permanent injunction and damages to the tune of Rs 9 crore for the comments made by Kashyap and others against him and his family.

Court’s findings

• Prima facie these statements are defamatory, derogatory, abusive and insulting in nature. These statements lower the image of the plaintiff in the eyes of the general public.
• Nobody can make and nobody should make defamatory statements against anyone’s family. Each individual has his privacy to be protected and image to be protected.
• The arguments of the counsel for defendant no.1 stating that he has the right to freedom of speech and expression cannot be accepted. The right to freedom of speech and expression doesn’t mean that one can use abusive and threatening language against any individual.

Direction

• Temporarily restrain the defendants from making, uploading videos, posting, re-posting, giving interviews, corresponding, communicating, uploading, printing, publishing, re-publishing, hosting, circulating or re-circulating any further defamatory/slanderous contains or making any further defamatory contents, derogatory remarks, posts, messages, tweets, videos, interviews, communications in relation to the plaintiff or his family on any social media platforms till they appear and file their reply.

The DSK legal team that is representing Khan comprises advocates Parag Khandhar, Chandrima Mitra, Partner, Tapan Radkar, Zara Dhanbhoora besides P D Gandhy