Hamdard insists on apology

The makers of popular squash 'Roohafza' today sought an apology from the producers of Bollywood movie "Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani" who told the Delhi High Court that the objectionable dialogues against the product have been already removed from the DVD and TV versions of the film.
"They (Dharma Productions) should accept they have ridiculed the product which came in market 100 years ago. They should apologise. They should regret," the counsel for Hamdard National Foundation submitted before Justice Mukta Gupta.
However, advocate for Dharma Productions, said since they have omitted all references to Roohafza from DVD and TV versions, and the theatrical version has been already released, "no apology from us (is required). How can we apologise if there is no intention to disparage?"

The Hamdard counsel said, "The producers of the film cannot say that why are we taking it upon ourselves or why are we finding it disparaging when they did not intend it to be so. Somebody should come from the company and make a statement. Some type of punitive damages should be there.
"They have ridiculed the product. We don't want to settle unless they regret and say it was in bad taste and disparaging. Article 19 of the Indian Constitution does not protect them if they ridicule anyone. If they say it is not wrong, it means they intended to do so."

The court asked the contesting parties to either settle their disputes or file their written submissions on the matter within four weeks.

The court had on June 10 restrained Dharma Productions from releasing the film on TV channels containing the "objectionable" dialogues against the squash.
It, however, had said the order was not applicable to the theatre version of the movie which was already released in the cinema halls.
The court order had come on an injunction suit filed by Hamdard National Foundation claiming the product is a household name in and outside India and the film contained some objectionable dialogues about the Unani recipe.