Bigg Boss in legal trouble for 'exploiting national anthem'

Airing of the ad prior to playing national anthem has been found objectionable by the person who filed the PIL

Bigg Boss, one of the biggest reality shows on Indian television, has once again found itself in the middle of a controversy. This time, the show and the channel is being accused of exploiting national anthem for commercial purpose.

Jeetender Gupta, a lawyer, has filed a PIL in the Delhi High Court alleging that Colors, the Hindi general entertainment channel has "disrespected" the national anthem by using it to promote its reality show in various multiplexes. After hearing the PIL, a division bench of Chief Justice D Murugesan and Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw has directed the Central Government to take action within a week against Colors.

“In the wake of serious allegations leveled by the petitioner that the national anthem is disrespected, we direct the Central government to treat this PIL as a representation and the grievances will be dealt with in accordance with the law. Necessary action would be taken by the concerned ministry against the respondents within a week,” the Court said.

In order to promote the show, Colors had displayed an advertisement inside the movie theatres and the said advertisement was in the form of a visual displaying the logo of its programme “Bigg Boss 6” followed by an audio demanding all present in the hall to stand up for the national anthem. The message, 'Bigg boss chahte hain ki aap rashtriya gaan ke liye khade hon', (Bigg Boss wants you to stand for the national anthem), was followed by the Indian National Anthem.

The PIL stated that the channel is “trying to associate itself with the national anthem solely for commercial purpose of promoting its latest TV programme.

"The acts of TV channel and PVR amount to possible violations of the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act 1971 and the Emblems and Names (prevention of improper use) Act 1950," it noted.

Colors spokesperson said, "We have utmost respect for National Anthem. And we will not be able to comment on the matter any further."

This is not for the first time that Colors has faced some heat over Bigg Boss. In the last season, the Information and Broadcasting Ministry had directed Colors to shift the show to 11 pm time band after it received complaints of inappropriate language. For this season, Colors had made sure that the show will be complete family entertainment and brought it back at 9 pm.