Madras HC quashes FIR registered against actor Suriya, Jai Bhim director TJ Gnanavel 

CHENNAI

The Madras High Court on Thursday quashed a First Information Report registered against actor Suriya and Jai Bhim director T.J. Gnanavel at the Velachery police station in Chennai for having allegedly hurt the feelings of the Vanniyar community by portraying it in a bad light in the movie.

Justice N. Sathish Kumar allowed a joint petition filed by both of them to quash the FIR booked on May 17 at the instance of Chennai-based advocate K. Santhosh of Rudra Vanniyar Sena.

According to the petitioners, the movie was based upon a case which Justice K. Chandru, a retired judge of the High Court, had conducted while he was a lawyer. Except for his name and the name of former Inspector General of Police Perumalsamy, the names of all other characters were changed in the movie.

The filmmakers consciously did not want to use the real names of the characters since most of the accused had undergone their sentence in full and were still alive. Further, it was indicated in the beginning of the movie that it was inspired by real life events and was not an actual portrayal of them.

The movie was given a ‘A’ certificate by the Censor Board and was released only on an over the top (OTT) platform, thereby limiting the number of viewers who could watch it. Chief Minister M.K. Stalin watched a special screening of the film on November 1 and appreciated the message that it conveyed.

It was also well received by the audience the world over without any distinction based on caste, community or religion and ended up winning several national and international awards, including the Dadasaheb Phalke Film Festival Award, the JFW Award and the Boston International Film Festival Award.

The chairman of the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry P.S. Amalraj too wrote a letter to the director appreciating the movie. Despite all this, the complainant had chosen to approach a Metropolitan Magistrate’s court in Saidapet and obtained an order on May 6 to register the FIR against the filmmakers.