Bollywood actor Alia Bhatt and Filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali have been summoned by a Mumbai court after a criminal defamation case was filed Gangubai Kathiawadi’s son, Babu Rawji Shah. The case against the director and actor comes as their upcoming biographical movie ‘Gangubai Kathiawadi’ has been receiving flak and mixed reactions from the audience and critics ever since its teaser released.

Earlier also, people have protested against the release of the movie, saying the film, which is slated to release on July 30, is “defamatory” and “shameful.”

Alia and Bhansali have been summoned by the court of an additional chief metropolitan magistrate in Mumbai and the duo will have to present themselves before the court on May 21, according to a report by India Today. 

Also Read | Who was Gangubai Kathiawadi: Brothel madam played by Alia Bhatt in her next

Shah, who is one of the four children adopted by Kathiawadi, in his complaint has claimed that the chapter on her mother in the book ‘Mafia Queens by Mumbai’ by Hussain Zaidi is defamatory, and tarnishes the reputation of Kathiawadi and ‘violates his right to privacy and self-respect,’ a report by The Indian Express said. 

In the film, which is based on Zaidi’s book, Alia plays the role of Kathiawadi. The defamatory suit has been filed against Bhansali, Alia and Zaidi. 

Earlier, residents of Kamathipura where the brothel queen Gangubai Kathiwadi had lived during the 1960s, protested against the movie, saying the movie is an “attempt to malign the 200 years of the actual history of the region.”

Gangubai was born in the village of Kathiawad in Gujarat, in the 1940s. She had initially begun as a sex worker in Mumbai’s Kamathipura and went on to own and manage several brothels in the area.