Two American college students who appear making racist and sexist comments in the box office hit 'Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan' are suing the film's producers and movie giant 20th Century Fox claiming that they were duped into appearing in the movie.
In a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles on Thursday, the students, named as John Doe 1 and John Doe 2, say that they agreed to appear in the film after producers promised it would never be shown in the US.
The lawsuit says that the producers of the film interviewed the students at their frat house and then brought them to a drinking establishment. It says that after a period of "heavy drinking" the students were presented with consent forms, which they signed.
The lawsuit continues that the students were then brought to a motor home for filming of what they were told would be a "documentary-style" movie and "were encouraged to continue drinking, which they did".
"Believing the film would not be viewed in the United States and at the encouragement of (the filmmakers), plaintiffs engaged in behaviour they otherwise would not have engaged in," the suit says.
The plaintiffs say they have suffered "humiliation, mental anguish, emotional and physical distress, loss of reputation, goodwill and standing in the community" because of the film.
Olivier Tailleiu, lawyer for the plaintiffs, said that the film has cost one of the students a job at a major corporation and the other "a very prestigious internship".
The third student who appears in the film did not take legal action; the lawsuit seeks unspecified monetary damages and a court order requiring the plaintiffs to be removed from the film.
A spokesman for the film's distributor, 20th Century Fox, said: "The lawsuit has no merit."
Read the review of 'Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan' here.
