After the trailer of Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Gangubai Kathiawadi was released, the country has been eagerly waiting to watch Alia Bhatt’s badass avatar in the film on February 25. However, Gangubai’s family – her purported adopted son Babu Raoji Shah and her granddaughter Bharti are not happy about the Alia Bhatt and Ajay Devgn-starrer.
For the uninitiated, Gangubai’s purported adopted son Babu Raoji Shah had filed a petition against the film Gangubai Kathiawadi back in 2021. A Mumbai court had even summoned director Sanjay Leela Bhansali and actress Alia Bhatt in the case. Later, the Bombay High Court had refused to stay the release of Gangubai Kathiawadi and also granted an interim stay on the criminal defamation proceedings against the makers of the film. The case, however, is still pending. Meanwhile, talking to AajTak.in, Babu Raoji Shah says, “My mother has been turned into a prostitute. People are now saying inexplicable things about my mother.”
According to Gangubai’s family lawyer, Narendra, the whole family has been in shock since the release of the trailer. “The way Gangubai was portrayed is completely wrong and baseless. It is vulgar. You are representing a social activist as a prostitute. Which family would like it? You have made her [Gangubai] a vamp and lady don,” he says.
Watch the trailer of Gangubai Kathiawadi here:
Narendra also reveals how the case filed by Babu Raoji Shah is still pending. “The issue with our [legal] system here is that instead of doing something about the gross misrepresentation, you are asked to produce proof that the son is indeed Gangubai’s son. Although we have proved it in court, there is no hearing in this matter now,” he claims.
The lawyer goes on, “Our fight started in 2020 when his son [Babu Raoji Shah] came to know that a film was being made on the life of Gangubai after seeing the picture of his mother in the promo of the film. Since then, the family has been in hiding. They are shifting homes, moving to Andheri or Borivali. Many relatives have raised questions about the portrayed, asking the family if Gangubai was really a prostitute and not a social worker as they had said. The family’s mental state is not good. No one is able to live in peace.”
“We have sent notices to Sanjay Leela Bhansali (director) and Hussain Zaidi (writer of Mafia Queens of Mumbai: Stories of Women from the Ganglands, from where Gangubai Kathiawadi was adapted). However, there has been no response from them,” he adds.
Meanwhile, Gangubai’s granddaughter Bharti says, “The makers have defamed my family out of greed for money. It cannot be accepted. You did not ask for the family’s consent before going ahead with the project. You did not come to us while writing the book , nor did you seek our permission before making the film.”
Bharti elaborates, “My grandmother used to live in Kamathipura. So, did every woman living there become a prostitute? My grandmother had adopted four children there – two daughters, Shakuntala Ranjit Kawi (Bharti’s mother) and Sushila Reddy, and two sons, Babu Raoji Shah and Rajinikanth Raoji Shah. We are from this family but now we’ve been termed ‘illegal’. When our grandmother went through with the adoption, such strict adoption laws were not in place.”
“We used to proudly narrate the stories of our grandmother. But, after the trailer was released, people have been calling to tell us how she is being portrayed as a prostitute. My grandmother has worked for the upliftment of the sex workers there throughout her life. What have these people turned my grandmother into,” Bharti said, on a parting note.
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