Mumbai Court grants relief to Karan Johar, restrains CarryMinati from making ‘objectionable’ videos against him

FOr years, filmmaker Karan Johar has oft found himself at the centre of online backlash o'er allegations that he promotes nepotism in Bollywood. From societal media memes to roasts, Karan has often been singled come out as the human face of Bollywood’s insider culture, especially after the nepotism debate intensified in recent years. However, the matter took a legal turn following CarryMinati’s roast video about him.Mumbai Court bars CarryMinati from making any defamatory videos against Karan JoharOn Monday, a Mumbai court restrained YouTuber Ajey Nagar, popularly known as Carryminati, along with Meta Platforms and others, from publishing or circulating any “objectionable or defamatory” content against the filmmaker.Karan had filed a defamation suit against CarryMinati and his associates after the YouTuber uploaded a roast video on his channel titled Coffee with Jalan. The filmmaker alleged that the video, reportedly modelled on his talk show Koffee With Karan, used abusive language targeting Bollywood, nepotism and him specifically.On Monday, 9 February, Judge Pandurang Bhosale passed an ad-interim order against CarryMinati, stating: “Prima facie, it appears that Ajey Nagar and Deepak Char (manager of the CarryMinati channel) have made defamatory statements and used vulgar language against the plaintiff. These videos need to be taken down immediately. There should be an injunction against all those who circulate and re-circulate these videos on social media platforms. This is a fit case to pass ad-interim injunction orders against the defendants.”In his plea, Karan stated that CarryMinati, along with his manager Deepak Char, had made defamatory remarks against him. He further argued that the language used in the video was extremely abusive, warranting its immediate removal from public platforms.Although Ajey, in his defence, maintained that the video had already been taken down, Karan contended that the damage had already been done. He pointed out that the clip had garnered millions of views before its deletion and continues to resurface in the form of reels and short videos circulating widely on social media.Judge Bhosale further added in the ad-interim order: “All the defendants No. 1 to 5, Defendant No. 8/John Doe, and their agents, servants or any persons claiming through or under them are hereby temporarily restrained from making and uploading videos, posting, re-posting, giving interviews, corresponding, communicating, uploading, printing, publishing, re-publishing, hosting, circulating or re-circulating any other defamatory/slanderous content or making any further defamatory content, derogatory remarks, posts, messages, tweets, videos, interviews, communications or correspondence, whether similar to the impugned content or otherwise, in any manner whatsoever in relation to the plaintiff on any social media platforms until the decision of the notice of motion. Defendant No. 6 is directed to take down the videos and URLs.”Karan Johar’s upcoming filmKaran is currently awaiting the release of his upcoming production, Accused. Helmed by Anubhuti Kashyap, the film stars Konkona Sen Sharma and Pratibha Ranta in the lead roles. The film is scheduled to be released on Netflix on 27 February.