The Telangana High Court on Tuesday issued notices to the film censor board and the producer of the yet-to-be-released Telugu film, Lakshmi’s NTR, following a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) on the film.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice Thottathil B. Radhakrishnan and Justice A. Rajasheker Reddy directed that notices be issued to the Hyderabad regional office of the Central Board of Film Certification and film producer Rakesh Reddy. They were directed to file counter-affidavits in the matter.
Senior counsel for the petitioner S.V.S.N. Varma of East Godavari district, Vedula Venkatramana, presented to the court that a song in the film, which was uploaded on YouTube and got widely circulated on social media, had shown Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu in poor light.
“There are no dialogues and pictures of Mr. Naidu are shown in the backdrop. The singer repeatedly says conspiracy and conspiracy and even the title of the song is conspiracy,” senior counsel told the bench. He argued that the song suggested that Mr. Naidu was responsible for the downfall of late N.T. Rama Rao.
He requested the bench to pass a direction for deletion of the song from YouTube and all other online platforms and the film as well. “I request you to see the video of the song before arriving at a decision on the matter and the arguments,” the senior lawyer said.
The CJ observed that, going by the arguments, the case could be at the most one of innuendo but the petitioner’s lawyer argued that the singer repeatedly using the word conspiracy amounted to a conspiracy to malign Mr. Naidu.