If you are Karan Johar and Akshay Kumar, you can get away with anything. Or so it seems after watching Good Newwz, the posh year-end comedy from Dharma Productions that stars Akshay Kumar and Kareena Kapoor Khan as a couple desperate to have a child.
In a sequence where Akshay’s character is required to produce a semen sample, he calls up his screen wife Kareena to help him with the needful. “Talk dirty to me,” he commands her.
When she cuts him short, saying she is interviewing Katrina (Kareena plays a journalist), Akshay quips, “If not you, then put Katrina on the line.”
Apparently Katrina, an old co-star and friend of Akshay, was informed about the reference, but does that justify the move?
According to the former chairperson of the Central Board Of Film Certification (CBFC) Pahlaj Nihalani, the rules clearly state that there should be no reference to any persons living who are public figures without their official consent.
“I doubt the CBFC has received a letter from Katrina giving permission for her name to be used. It is therefore not allowed,” says Pahlaj.
Meanwhile, Katrina is currently shooting with Akshay for Sooryavanshi, probably pretending to have a good laugh over the risqué reference. And therein lies the problem with an industry that worships power and success even at the cost of decency.
