 "The Ba***ds of Bollywood series has landed in legal trouble. Image Courtesy: Instagram/
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The Ba***ds of Bollywood directed by Shah Rukh Khan’s son, Aryan Khan, is making waves. The Netflix series has received decent reviews and has become a talking point on the internet.
But it is not all good news for the Netflix show, which has now landed in legal trouble. Sameer Wankhede, who had arrested Aryan Khan in 2021, has sued Shah Rukh Khan’s Red Chillies Entertainment and Netflix over his alleged portrayal in the series.
We take a closer look.
Who is Sameer Wankhede?
Sameer Wankhede , a 2008-batch Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer, hails from Washim district of Maharashtra’s Vidarbha region.
The son of a policeman, he grew up in Mumbai’s Sewri-Wadala area along with his sister. Wankhede is married to Marathi actor Kranti Redkar.
He began his career with the Intelligence Bureau in Andhra Pradesh in 2006. He was later posted in Delhi.
The IRS officer has worked with Mumbai airport customs, the central excise department and the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB).
It was during his tenure as NCB’s Mumbai zonal director that he shot to the national limelight.
After actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death in June 2020, the NCB soon began an investigation into a possible drug angle.
With Wankhede as the head, the NCB’s Mumbai unit arrested Rajput’s actor-girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty and her brother Showik. The duo was booked under the National Drugs & Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act for alleged drug possession and consumption.
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More ShortsBoth were later granted bail.
Wankhede’s NCB team arrested comedian Bharti Singh and her husband Haarsh Limbachiyaa in November 2020 after allegedly recovering 86.5 grams of ganja during a search at their residence and office. The couple got bail within two days.
In January 2021, the NCB arrested senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Nawab Malik’s son-in-law, Sameer Khan, under the NDPS Act, causing a stir in political circles.
Wankhede’s Aryan Khan connection
Wankhede’s most high-profile arrest was that of SRK’s son, Aryan Khan.
In October 2021, the NCB’s Mumbai unit raided an alleged rave party on a Goa-bound cruise liner. Aryan Khan, then 24, and several others were arrested on allegations of possession, consumption, and sale/purchase of banned drugs.
The NCB had claimed to have seized 13 grams of cocaine, five grams of MD, 21 grams of charas, 22 pills of MDMA (ecstasy) and Rs 1.33 lakh in cash during its raid on the Cordelia cruise ship.
After spending nearly a month in jail, Aryan Khan was granted bail by the Bombay High Court.
The case stoked many controversies, including Wankhede being accused of planting drugs on Aryan and some other accused.
The IRS officer also faced allegations of demanding Rs 25 crore from Shah Rukh Khan’s family by threatening to implicate his son in the Cordelia cruise drug bust case.
In 2023, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) booked Wankhede in a corruption case for allegedly demanding a bribe to “settle” Aryan Khan’s case.
Amid these charges, Wankhede’s tenure at the NCB, which ended in December 2021, was not extended. Instead, he was sent back to the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence.
In May 2022, Wankhede was transferred to the Directorate General of Taxpayers Services in Chennai.
After the NCB stint, he has tried to portray himself as an anti-drugs crusader and social worker. Wankhede’s “admiration” for the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and links with the BJP have also triggered speculations about him joining politics.
However, his acquaintances from Mumbai and Washim told ThePrint in 2023 that “Sameer dada” has been largely apolitical.
The Ba***ds of Bollywood in legal trouble
Wankhede has moved the Delhi High Court against Red Chillies Entertainment and Netflix. He filed a defamation suit seeking Rs 2 crore in damages, alleging that Aryan Khan’s directorial debut contains “false, malicious, and defamatory content” intended to tarnish his image.
He has claimed to donate the amount to the Tata Memorial Cancer Hospital for the treatment of cancer patients.
Some users on X have claimed that a scene in the first episode of the series showed a character, purportedly resembling Wankhede, who lands outside a party to hunt for people from “Bollywood, who are doing drugs”.
The former NCB officer claimed that the Netflix series depicted a misleading and negative portrayal of anti-drug enforcement agencies, “damaging” his professional reputation.
In his statement, he claimed that The Ba***ds of Bollywood has been “deliberately conceptualised and executed with the intent to malign Sameer Wankhede’s reputation in a colourable and prejudicial manner.”
“Especially when the case involving Sameer Wankhede and Aryan Khan is pending and sub-judice before the Hon’ble Bombay High Court and the NDPS Special Court, Mumbai,” he said in his statement to the media, as per NDTV.
“Furthermore, the series, inter alia, depicts a character making an obscene gesture — specifically, showing a middle finger after the character recites the slogan “Satyamev Jayate” which is the part of the National Emblem. This act constitutes a grave and sensitive violation of the provisions of the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971, which attracts penal consequences under law.”
“In addition, the content of the series is in contravention of various provisions of the Information Technology Act and the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), as it seeks to outrage national sentiment through the use of obscene and offensive material,” it added.
With inputs from agencies