Late NEET aspirant Anitha’s father moves HC against movie on her

Justice K Kalyanasundaram before whom the plea came up for hearing on Thursday ordered notice to Ajay alias Ajaykumar, producer and director of the movie, returnable by November 23.

Anita’s father T Shanmugam (Plaintiff) on recalling her struggle by filing cases against the Centre for exempting her from NEET examination and to consider her for medical admission as was done previously, said that film producers wanted to encash on her sacrifice and the sympathy wave towards her for their monetary and political gains.

While a film producer Rajaganapthy made an announcement in this regard of producing a film based on Anitha’s life, the said producer was informed by me and my sons that the film should not be taken without their consent and permission.

But notwithstanding this, on May 13, 2018 there was an advertisement in a Tamil daily about a movie Dr Anitha, MBBS, being produced by R J Pictures and starring Jalli Kattu Julie is in the final stage of production. It was also mentioned that the said movie has been scripted, written and directed by Ajaykumar, the defendant herein, the plea said.

Subsequently, with further publicity materials being posted online, a lawyer notice was issued to the said Ajaykumar calling him to refrain from proceding with the film. But Ajaykumar failed to respond to all their attempts to meet him resulting in the present plaint, the plea said and noted that the defendant or anybody else do not have any right to film the life history of his daughter, which amounts to infringing on her right to privacy.

Based on this, the plaintiff sought the court to direct the defendant to pay Rs.25.01 Lakh towards damages and suffering undergone by him and his family owing to the publication of film promotion based on his daughter’s life. He also sought for a permanent injunction restraining the defendant from continuing with the film’s production.