Srinagar: Anurag Basu’s ‘Barfi’ might me making sweet success story but bitter controversy seems to trail the movie again after a picture of sports manager from Kashmir was shown as one of the robbers in a scene without his knowledge.
Majid Yousuf Dar, a 34 year old sports manager with the J&K Bank claims that the movie has used his picture without his permission and portrayed him in bad light by showing him as a bank robber.
The controversial scene shows the lead actress Ileana D’Cruz entering a police station looking for lead actor Ranbir Kapoor. The police inspector informs her that Kapoor has been arrested because he is one of the bank robbers, pointing towards two pictures of Dar in the wanted list along with mugshots of other robbers.
Dar who lives adjacent to world famous Dal Lake says that he came to know about this incidence from friends and relatives who had watched the film after the release last month, “First, I took it as a prank from my friends. Then my Delhi-based cousin informed me about the use of my pictures. I watched the film to find myself as one of the robbers pointed out by a police inspector in the movie,” alleged Dar.
Dar says that he is mulling to file a defamation case against the production house UTV films, “We are filing a defamation case for damaging Dar’s reputation by showing him in bad light. Two, the prior permission was not sought. The portrayal is bound to have people drawing inferences,” says Dar’s Delhi-based lawyer Sajad Sultan.
Zahid Maqbool is a freelance journalist based in Srinagar.
Chori toh chori … robbery bhi ?!