Alka Verma –
Published On: September 21, 2021 at 11:45 IST
The Supreme Court stayed an Order given by National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC).
The Order directs Yash Raj Films Pvt Ltd to pay an amount of Rs 10,000 as compensation along with litigation costs to a viewer of the movie.
The view was very aggrieved because of the exclusion of the song ‘Jabra Fan’ from the Bollywood movie ‘Fan’ starring Shah Rukh Khan and hence filed a complaint claiming compensation.
A bench comprising Justices Hemant Gupta and V Ramasubramanium questioned the production house about the exclusion of the song and if it was earlier excluded why they decided to promote it in the trailer.
“The problem is that you (production house) show something else in the trailer which is not there in the movie. When the trailer is released, it is a trailer of the movie. Why were you marketing your movie with the song when you knew it was meant to be for the promotion of the film?” asked the Bench.
The Apex Court gave the order while it was hearing an Appeal filed by Yash Raj Films against an order of NCDRC.
The NCDRC order upheld the 2017 Order of the State Commission to pay a compensation of Rs.10,000 Afreen Fatima Zaidi, the complainant along with a litigation cost of Rs.5,000.
Afreen Fatima Zaidi, a teacher by profession, filed a complaint in 2016.
In her complaint she mentioned that she, along with her family went to watch the movie after seeing the ‘Jabra fan’ song in the trailer and she felt cheated while watching the movie as the song was included there.
Zaidi firstly approached the concerned District Forum where her complaint was dismissed and from there, she moved to SCDRC (State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission) which was opposed by the production house.
The production house in their defence stated that a complainant can never be said as a consumer.
Further talking about the song, the production house said that the song was shown on TV as a promotional trailer and yet it was out for everyone through media, promotional events and various Tv channels and it was also stated very clearly in all the events that the song is not going to be included in the movie.
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