Ram Gopal Varma’s film ‘Murder’ gets nod for release with conditions

The film is based on a real-life story of a Dalit youth who was assassinated by killers hired by his father in law.

The Telangana high court on Friday cleared popular film director Ram Gopal Varma’s Telugu film titled – ‘Murder’- which is based on a real-life story of a Dalit boy who was killed by his father-in-law, belonging to an upper caste, in an alleged hate crime two years ago.

Filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma expressed his happiness at the court’s decision to allow his film to be released. (Hindustan Times Photo)

The killing of Perumalla Pranay (24) by a contract killer hired by his father-in-law T Maruthi Rao, in broad daylight, while he was coming out of a hospital along with his pregnant wife Amrutha in Miryalaguda town of Nalgonda district on September 14, 2018, created a nationwide sensation.

Rao had a grouse against Pranay for marrying Amrutha much against his wishes. The Nalgonda police arrested Rao, his brother Sravan and three others in connection with the murder four days later. They were released on bail later.

Rao, who made a desperate attempt to make Amrutha return to his house after Pranay’s murder, died by suicide at a guest house in Hyderabad on March 8 this year.

Varma started making the film titled ‘Murder’ on the tragic story of Rao and Amrutha, which made big headlines in the media, under the banner of Natti’s Entertainment. The film is being produced by Natti Karuna and Natti Kranti and presented by Anurag Kancharla. The roles of father and daughter were played by Srikanth Iyengar and Sahiti.

As Varma released the promo of the film on YouTube, Amrutha moved a special court for SC/ST cases in Nalgonda seeking to stall the release of the film and the withdrawal of the promo. She alleged that Varma was trying to cash in on the personal tragedy in her family and that she was still undergoing the trauma of losing her husband and father.

On August 24, the Nalgonda court stalled the release of the film and also the promo on YouTube, after hearing the arguments of both the sides. Varma challenged the decision in the high court.

On Friday, a division bench of the state high court comprising justice M S Ramachandra Rao and Justice T Amarnath Goud, struck down the lower court’s order and permitted Varma to release the film, subject to certain conditions.

The bench ordered that Varma should not use the names of Amrutha, Pranay and Maruthi Rao anywhere in the film and also in the publicity material. The director also should refrain from referring to any of the incidents that happened in the life of Amrutha.

Varma agreed to the conditions. “VERY HAPPY to inform that our good intentions of making the film MURDER has been rightly understood by the honourable COURT ..Details will be given once the order is with us ..THANKING EVERYONE,” he tweeted after the court verdict.