Wildlife in Bollywood: When Aamir Khan had a chinkara 'scare' in 2000
The Bollywood star had a brush with legal proceedings over alleged illegal filming of a chinkara.
By TNN | Updated:
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In 2008, Khan moved the Gujarat High Court for quashing of the complaint on the ground that the antelope was created in studio with special effect and there was no actual filming of the animal that ever took place in Kutch.
AHMEDABAD: Bollywood star Aamir Khan had a brush with legal proceedings over the alleged illegal filming of a chinkara in the border district of Kutch during the shooting of his blockbuster film 'Lagaan' in 2000, and then the mysterious disappearance of the antelope after the shooting.
Trouble came for Khan and his 'Lagaan''s crew five years after the shoot. An assistant conservator of forest, Kutch range, J E Vyas, filed a complaint for ‘illegally’ filming a chinkara, a Schedule I animal, even after the filmmakers were denied permission for the same.
The forest department filed the complaint against seven persons including Khan, his then-wife Reena Dutt, director Ashutosh Gowariker and three technical experts in a court in Bhuj, on charges of illegal shooting of a chinkara in the Banni grassland.
The government defended the late filing of the complaint by saying that it was because the officer had seen the film in 2005.
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The forest department carried out a preliminary investigation and the matter was closed in 2006. But the case was reopened after an environment group — Gir Youth Nature Club — registered a complained in this regard. Incidentally, the Club’s complaint took place after Khan’s remarks on Narmada dam sparked of a controversy and major protests took place across the state against the film star, and his film ‘Fanaa’ was boycotted in Gujarat.
In 2008, Khan and the other accused moved Gujarat high court for quashing of the complaint on the ground that the antelope was created in studio with special effect and there was no actual filming of the animal that ever took place in Kutch.
On May 8, 2015, the high court quashed the complaint in this case and lambasted the government for filing it on basis of a scene in the film. “On such imaginary scenes, if criminal machinery is set into motion, then it will be very hazardous for the society at large.”
The HC had also said, “This case falls in the category of rarest of rare cases as it leads to insurmountable harassment, agony and pain to the petitioners as well as to their reputation only on the imagination of the complainant (forest official) of unknown facts. There is no evidence, the complaint is false, frivolous, imaginary and absurd.”
