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Court refuses to stop release of Veerappan film

The court declined to grant interim relief on the plea seeking a direction to file a report of the State Home Secretary and the Regional Censor Board of Film Certification with regard to issue of ā€˜Uā€™ certificate to the film

Court refuses to stop release of Veerappan film
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Chennai

The Madras High Court has refused to grant an interim stay on a petition seeking to stall the screening of the film Killing Veerappan, a dramatized account of the last hours of the forest brigand. The plea, filed by Paneer Selvi a woman from Saminaickenpatti in Salem had also sought an explanation from the Tamil Nadu Home Secretary and the Regional Censor Board of Film Certification with regard to the use of ā€œUā€ Certificate for the film.

Vacation Judge Justice K Kalyanasundaram, who refused to grant an interim stay, adjourned the case to January 4 after the Government Pleader sought time to get instructions from the authorities concerned. Paneer Selvi in her petition before the High Court had submitted that the film on the forest brigand produced in various languages, including Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Hindi, degraded Tamils, especially women by showing them wielding weapons.Ā 

The petitioner further submitted that the teaser to the film was riddled with gross factual errors. Citing the trailer of the film released recently, Paneer Selvi alleged that the ā€œentire movie is full of false information which serves nothing but creating law and order problems in Tamil Nadu.ā€Ā 

While the actual encounter had taken place in 2004 in a joint operation undertaken by the Special Task Force (STF) of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, the movie seems to depict that the Karnataka police had singlehandedly curbed the menace of the sandalwood smuggler Veerappan. She said that contrary to facts, the movie depicts Veerappan as a violent man who killed 184 persons, 97 policemen, 900 elephants and that an amount of Rs 734 crore was spent to capture him.Ā 

The movie also depicts Veerappanā€™s wife, Muthulakshmi as a murderer, which according to the petitioner was a false notion. Admonishing the director and the writer of the movie Ram Gopal Varma as an insensitive coward, the petitioner claimed the movie has depicted Tamil Naduā€™s policemen and politicians in a bad light.Ā 

She further pointed out that if released, the film would make a dent on the goodwill surrounding the police and politicians of the state. The petitioner alleged that the film is bound to trigger tensions between the people of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka if released. The director had some pre-conceived ā€œnegativeā€ notions about the Tamil Nadu Police and politicians, she charged.

Produced by BV Manjunath, BS Sudhindra and Sivaprakash, the film is slated to be released on January 1, 2016, in various languages including Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Hindi.

Brigand Biopic

  • The film Killing Veerappan is based on the events leading up to Operation Cocoon to capture or kill forest bandit Veerappan.
  • The film was shot primarily in Kannada, and simultaneously dubbed into Telugu, Hindi, and Tamil languages.
  • It features Shivaraj Kumar in the central role of Senthamarai Kannan, the Superintendent of police, with the Indian Special Task Force, and the spy who masterminded Operation Cocoon.
  • The film is set to release theatrically on 1 January 2016.

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