Delhi HC gives green signal to 'Batla House' release, subject to certain modifications

The Delhi High court on Tuesday gave green signal to the release of movie ‘Batla House’ on August 15 after the film makers agreed to certain modifications.

Justice Vibhu Bakhru passed the consent order and said the film makers are bound by their statement and disposed of the petition.

The film makers agreed to put certain disclaimers and delete some scenes in the movie which were objectionable to the petitioners—Ariz Khan, who is facing trial in the Batla House encounter case, and Shahzad Ahmed, who was sentenced to life imprisonment by a trial court and his appeal is pending in the high court.

The petition had claimed that the film, slated to be released on Independence Day, shows a link between the bomb blasts and the encounter and would therefore, prejudicially affect the trial in both cases.

Batla House will bring to screen one of the most-talked-about police operations in the recent times, the encounter at L-Batla House where John Abraham is up to play the controversial ACP Sanjeev Kumar Yadav in the film.

According to reports by Deccan Chronicle, Saif was approached for the film, he reportedly read the script but never signed it because things did not work out between him and director Nikkhil Advani.

A source close to the project revealed to the newspaper, “Yes, Saif was considered for this role. He also heard the script, but he never officially signed the film because things didn’t work out for reasons best known to Saif and Nikkhil. Nikkhil, who has also worked with John in Satyamev Jayate, felt John would do justice to this role and later approached him for the same’’.

(With inputs from PTI)