Lucknow court summons Netflix over docu-series

The Lucknow court of special chief judicial magistrate issued summons to Netflix’s Director of Business Development Abhishek Nag, producer Reve Sharma and director Nick Reed by an order on October 13.

A court in Lucknow has issued summons to over-the-top (OTT) platforms Netflix and producer-director of docu-series Bad Boy Billionaires over a criminal defamation complaint filed by Sahara India for allegedly showing Sahara’s Subrata Roy in a bad light.

Complaint claimed that the Netflix documentary was a deliberate attempt to benefit the adversaries of Sahara and ensure business advantage to other companies by tarnishing Sahara’s image. (Representational picture)

The court of special chief judicial magistrate issued summons to Netflix’s Director of Business Development Abhishek Nag, producer Reve Sharma and director Nick Reed by an order on October 13. The order was released on Wednesday.

According to the criminal defamation complaint, the documentary on Sahara India Pariwar chairman has tried to bring disrepute not only to Roy but has also impacted the esteem of all the employees of the group.

It claimed that the documentary was a deliberate attempt to benefit the adversaries of Sahara and ensure business advantage to other companies by tarnishing Sahara’s image.

Issuing summons, the judicial magistrate said that a prima facie case is made out to hand out the process against those complained against. Nag, Reed and Sharma have been asked to appear before the court on November 15.

The docu-series was released on Netflix last year. Three out of the docu-series’ four total episodes are now streaming: ‘The King of Good Times’ about Kingfisher’s Vijay Mallya, ‘Diamonds Aren’t Forever’ about jeweller Nirav Modi, and ‘The World’s Biggest Family’ about Sahara’s Subrata Roy.

The fourth and final episode, about Satyam’s Ramalinga Raju, could not be released due to a separate order of injunction from a Hyderabad court.