Raees team gets legal notice from Abdul Latif's son

Rahul Dholakia's Raees -- in which Shah Rukh Khan plays a character apparently inspired by Abdul Latif, an alleged gangster who ran the illicit liquor business in Gujarat during the peak of prohibition in the 1990s -- is in legal trouble.

The slain gangster’s son Mustak Ahmed Abdul Latif Shaikh has sent legal notices to nine prominent people involved with the making of the film, including Shah Rukh Khan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, producer Ritesh Sidwani and director Rahul Dholakia, asking how or why a film on his father’s life is being made.

The legal notice advises the film’s team to 'stop and desist from screening, promoting, releasing, publicising, advertising and exploiting the Hindi film titled Raees.'

It goes on to say that Mustak Ahmed Abdul Latif Shaikh’s father was 'a famous businessman with deep roots in society.'

In other words, Raees is likely to show him in an unfavourable light and must therefore explain itself to the son of the man on whose life the film is based.

Apparently, even the set representing the protagonist’s house that was erected in Mumbai's Film City was a replica of the Shaikhs’ residence.