Delhi High Court (HC) on Thursday refused to block several movies purportedly based on late Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s life, including ‘Nyay: The Justice’, a day before its release.

The court said these films have neither been portrayed as biopics nor factual narrations of what transpired in his life. “Posthumous privacy right is not permissible,” the high court said in its interim order on a plea by Rajput’s father to restrain such films from release.

“The artistic freedom to create fictional works cannot be controlled, limited, or confined within set boundaries… An artist’s inspiration can come from any source, and the court cannot filter real-life events. This court finds merit in the submission of the defendants that details of the demise of SSR received widespread and protracted news coverage in all media, which are available in the public domain...,” it said in its verdict.

The court noted that senior advocate Vikas Singh, representing Rajput’s father, argued fleetingly that right to free speech in news reporting did not enjoy the same protection in matters of commercial exploitation.