Court begins hearing case against Slumdog

Patna, Feb 18 (IANS) A Bihar court Wednesday began hearing a defamation case against the Indian cast of Oscar-nominated film "Slumdog Millionaire" and music maestro A.R. Rahman for allegedly "abusing slum dwellers".

The court of the chief judicial magistrate here, after the day's hearing, slated the case for Feb 24, a court source said.

Petitioner Tapeshwar Vishwakarma told IANS: "Now all of us are waiting for judgement on the next hearing."

Shruti Singh, lawyer for the petitioner, said the court heard her argument in the case. "The court did not reject the case, we will put our plea in the next hearing," she said.

In his petition, Vishwakarma, general secretary of the Jhuggi Jhonpdi Sanyukta Sangharsh Samiti (a group promoting the rights of slum dwellers), has accused music director A.R. Rahman, actor Anil Kapoor and other Indians associated with the film of "offending the sensibilities of slum dwellers with the abusive title of the movie".

No charge, however, was filed against the film's director Danny Boyle, who is a British citizen.

"The name of the film is against basic human values," she said.

A copy of the petition has been sent to the National Human Rights Commission, the State Human Rights Commission and the Film Censor Board of the central government.

A few weeks ago a group of slum dwellers protested against screening of the film at Ashok cinema hall here and tore down its posters and banners. They demanded that the filmmaker remove the word 'dog' from the title.

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