'Anything under garb of free speech?' Karnataka HC pulls up TV channel over Mahabharata parody in comedy show

Bengaluru: The High Court of Karnataka on Tuesday deprecated a private Kannada television channel depicting mythological characters of Mahabharata in a comedy show. 

"Can you do anything you want to under the garb of free speech? Such people don’t deserve any indulgence who display Gods, mythological figures as useless,” Justice M Nagaprasanna orally observed during the hearing of a petition filed by the channel seeking quashing of the investigation. 

The channel challenged the FIR registered by the Subramanyapura police in Bengaluru under BNS Section 299 for deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings. 

The complaint, filed by Prasanth Shashidhar Nargund with the Hubballi police, stated that an episode aired on November 15, 2025, had indulged in denigration of mythological characters. The complaint was transferred to Bengaluru and an FIR was registered at Subramanyapura police station. 

The petitioners' counsel submitted that the episode was aired in a show called the 'Comedy Khiladigalu', which focused on fictional villagers, rehearsing a scene from Mahabharata. The counsel claimed that the show has seen five seasons and that it does not mean to hurt religious sentiments. He further submitted that the procedure of preliminary enquiry was not followed. 

On the other hand, the Additional State Public Prosecutor submitted that the show was circulated widely. 

Perusing the complaint, the court orally observed that the way characters such as Krishna, Droupadi and Dhritarashtra were depicted were unreadable. It passed an interim order, asking the police not to take coercive steps. 

"The petitioners shall participate in the investigation as the matter is still at the stage of crime. The prosecution in the garb of investigation shall not take any coercive steps against the petitioners till the next date of hearing," the court said.