Following the petition against Sony Pictures India, the Supreme Court has ordered New guidelines on the portrayal of disabilities on visual media.
Nipun Malhotra filed the case against Sony Pictures owing to the offensive portrayal of differently abled people in an upcoming movie ‘Aankh Micholi’. The movie mocks several disabilities like people with stammering issues are called ‘atki hui cassettes’ (stuck cassettes) while people with memory problems are called ‘bhulakkad baap’ and night blindness is misinterpreted with mockery. The Supreme Court has said that there should be a clear distinction between ‘disability humour’ which intends to educate and ‘disabling humour’ which only intends to mock.
Lawyers Jai Anant Dehadrai and Sanjoy Ghose fought the case against Sony Pictures India and brought in a historic win. The petitioner Nipun Malhotra himself is a differently abled man and the founder of ‘Wheels For Life’. This ‘Nipun Malhotra VS Sony Pictures’ case will shape the structure of many upcoming jokes and gags in movies and shows to come. This is indeed a big step towards making a much comfortable and empathetic place in the visual media for differently abled people.
The film in concern, ‘Aankh Micholi’, came out in the theaters on the 3rd of November last year and starred Abhimanyu Dassani, Mrunal Thakur and others.