Opinion Fact, fiction
‘Gulaab Gang’ controversy has thrown up knotty questions of artistic freedom and individual privacy.
‘Gulaab Gang’ controversy has thrown up knotty questions of artistic freedom and individual privacy.
In response to a case filed by activist Sampat Pal, the Delhi High Court stayed the release of Gulaab Gang. Though it has subsequently vacated the stay, the controversy is yet to fade. The film could cause a “loss of reputation” for Pal, the court had said, and it could not allow a person to be “defamed”.
Pal, leader of the Gulaabi gang in UP, had claimed that the filmmakers did not take her permission before making the movie. An official involved in the movie claimed it has nothing to do with her story. The clash has thrown up a knotty question: how far can artistic freedom be limited by an individual’s right to control the information that is circulated about her?
Shekhar Kapur’s 1994 film, Bandit Queen, was apparently based on the “true story” of Phoolan Devi. Apart from taking liberties with her story, it depicted several scenes of sexual violence, allegedly without her consent. The invasion of a person’s most traumatic moments for the sake of a better story was criticised by many.
India’s defamation law provides protection against material that may harm a person’s reputation, while making exceptions for the “conduct of any person touching any public question”. In our country, however, the ability to protect one’s reputation appears to be largely restricted to powerful individuals anxious to preserve their public image: copies of The Polyester Prince, based on the life of Dhirubhai Ambani, were pulped, and Indira Gandhi took Salman Rushdie to court over Midnight’s Children and had a defamatory sentence expunged from it.
The lines between malicious or invasive content and genuine criticism or comment are often blurred. Where fiction ends and the inviolable substance of a human life begins is a region lost in shadows. Perhaps the question is best settled on a case by case basis, taking into account the context of the work and the life.
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