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Petition to curb productions allegedly based on Jayalalithaa dismissed
Jayalalithaa’s niece feared that imposition of third-party views in the projects based on her aunt’s life could tarnish former chief minister’s image and that of her family.
A petition to restrain three productions allegedly based on late former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa was dismissed by the Madras High Court on Thursday. The court set aside Jayalalithaa’s niece Deepa Jayakumar’s concerns that it would impact former AIADMK chief’s image and her family after assurances to the contrary from the producers.
Deepa had demanded that Kollywood directors, Gowtham Vasudev Menon and AL Vijay, took her consent for making a web series and two biopics, allegedly based on former AIADMK chief’s life, claiming that imposition of third party views in the projects could tarnish former chief minister’s image and that of her family, including the petitioner’s.
“It is essential to get my approval to release the movie. I should know the storyline and script of the biopic,” Deepa said in her petition.
She had also argued that her own life could be dragged into the biopic compromising her privacy.
“As I was also a part of my aunt’s life, portions on me could also be filmed in the movie. It may cost my family our privacy. My aunty was a political leader and former chief minister. So, the movie could defame her personality” the petition said.
However, the respondents, Gowtham Vasudev Menon, who is making a web series titled ‘Queen’ and Kollywood filmmaker AL Vijay along with Producer Vishnu Vardhan Indhuri, who are jointly making a Tamil movie ‘Thalaivi’ and its Hindi version ‘Jaya’, submitted that their projects were not based on Jayalalithaa’s life.
“We are making a web series based on an English novel ‘Queen’. It has no connection with the petitioner,” Gowtham Menon said.
Vishnu Vardhan Indhuri said his movies were based on the novel called ‘Tamil’.
Justice Senthil Kumar Ramamoorthy dismissed the petition citing the two filmmakers’ assurances.
South Indian actress Ramya Krishnan is playing the lead in Gowtham Menon’s web series while Bollywood star Kangana Ranaut is the lead in AL Vijay’s biopics.
