Police summon ‘Baby’ filmmakers for depicting drug use on screen
It is only Ganja drug abusers who roll the narcotic in OCB paper the way it was shown on screen in the movie. The scene was also uploaded by the Baby movie team on YouTube
By Sri Lakshmi Muttevi Published on 14 Sep 2023 3:26 PM GMT
A screenshot from the film.
Hyderabad: Hyderabad Commissioner of Police CV Anand has issued a notice to the makers of the movie Baby for a scene allegedly depicting the usage of drugs. The makers have been asked to appear before the Telangana Command and Control Centre (ICCC) and explain their reasons for including such a scene.
The movie, starring Anand Devarakonda and Vyshnavi Chaitanya, was released recently across Telangana State. The movie was produced by Sri Srinivas Kumar Naidu under the Mass Movie Makers banner with Sri Sai Rajesh Neelam as the director.
According to CV Anand, the movie, at 35:24 minutes and 36:38 minutes, blatantly shows the heroine, played by Vaishnavi Chaitanya and another character played by Kirrak Seetha, smoking a substance in an OCB paper. The scene shows them licking and rolling the OCB paper. This conveys to the audience that the characters are smoking Ganja.
“It is only Ganja drug abusers who roll the narcotic in OCB paper the way it was shown on screen in the movie. The scene was also uploaded by the Baby movie team on YouTube,” the commissioner of police said.
Further, the police quoted the Supreme Court’s observation in the KA Abbas Vs Union case, which said, “It had been almost universally recognised that motion pictures must be treated differently from other forms of art and expression, because a motion picture’s instant appeal both to the sight and to hearing, and because a motion picture had become more true to life than even the theatre or any other form of artistic representation. Its effect, particularly on children and immature adolescents was great.”
The case also attracted the provision of Article 47 of the Constitution of India in which it is envisaged that “the state shall endeavour to bring about prohibition of the consumption except for medicinal purposes of intoxicating drinks and of drugs which are injurious to health.”
The filmmakers are asked to appear before the police on September 14 at the ICCC, Road No 12, Banjara Hills in Hyderabad. They have been asked to give an explanation as a movie, being a highly influential medium, can glorify the actions of characters with negative shades.
