Gangubai Kathiawadi's son lashes out at SLB, says 'my mother has been turned into a prostitute'

Pic Courtesy: Movie still

New Delhi: Filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Gangubai Kathiawadi film seems to have irked her family. The film is adapted from Hussain Zaidi's book Mafia Queens of Mumbai about Ganga Harjivandas, a simple girl of Kathiawad. 

Looks like Gangubai Kathiawadi's adopted son Babu Raoji Shah and her granddaughter Bharti are not happy about the film. 

Babu Raoji Shah expressed his displeasure with the Alia Bhatt starter. "My mother has been turned into a prostitute. People are now saying inexplicable things about my mother," he told AajTak in Hindi.

Gangubai’s family lawyer said, “The way Gangubai was portrayed is completely wrong and baseless. It is vulgar. You are representing a social activist as a prostitute. Which family would like it? You have made her [Gangubai] a vamp and lady don.” He then also added that the case filed by Babu Raoji Shah is still pending and how the legal system asks to produce proof that the son is indeed Gangubai’s son. “Although we have proved it in court, there is no hearing in this matter now,” he claims.

“They have been asking the family if Gangubai was really a prostitute and not a social worker as they had said. The family’s mental state is not good. No one is able to live in peace,” said Gangubai Kathiawadi’s family lawyer Narendra.

In 2021, a Mumbai court had summoned Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Alia Bhatt after Babu Raoji Shah filed a petition against the film. The summons was issued to Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Bhansali Productions, the authors and Bhatt. A defamation case was filed by Babuji Shah through lawyer Narendra Dubey.

Shah, the adopted son of Gangubai Kathiawadi, said chapters in the novel on his mother were defamatory, tarnished her reputation and infringed upon the right to privacy and self-respect.