The Vanniyar Sangam issued a legal notice to Amazon India, actor Suriya, Jyotika, and director TJ Gnanavel of Jai Bhim movie, demanding an unconditional apology and removal of the scenes which are dubbed as defamatory. The notice issued also sought Rs 5 crore compensation within seven days.
In the legal notice, Vanniyar Sangam alleged that certain scenes in the movie were deliberately framed to tarnish the reputation of the community.
“Only with malicious intention to portray Vanniyar Sangam in poor light, the makers have deliberately framed certain scenes of the movie, only to cause greater disrepute to the community,” the notice read.
The notice alleged that the movie was based on a real story of the custodial torture of members of an underprivileged community and all the real names of characters of the incident were retained in the film. Yet, the makers have deliberately named the Sub-inspector of police who tortured the victims in police custody as “Guru” resembling one of the frontline leaders of Vanniyar Sangam.
The notice further alleged that the makers of the film have deliberately got printed a calendar of the year 1995 with the symbol of “Agni Kundam” representing the Vanniyar Sangam and community with a malafide intention of defaming the members of Vanniyar Sangam and damaging the image and reputation of entire Vanniyar community.
The notice urged correspondents to remove the defamatory scenes as well as any reference to the community and its symbol of ‘Agni Kundam’ with immediate effect. They have asked the makers of Jai Bhim to immediately desist from making or publishing any false, malicious and defamatory remarks against the community and its people.
Soon after controversy erupted, Celebrities, Suriya’s fans and supporters took to Twitter to express solidarity to Suriya and the makers of Jai Bhim. #WeStandWithSurya, #WeStandWithSuriyaAnna hashtags are trending on the microblogging site.
Jai Bhim which was released on Amazon Prime on November 2, the courtroom drama is based on a true incident in 1993 involves a case fought by Justice K. Chandru who comes to the aid of poor, defenceless people from the Irular community who have no means to stand up to the might of an inhuman police force that seeks to exploit their helplessness.
The movie has overtaken cult classic ‘The Shawshank Redemption’ to claim the number one spot in IMDB’s top 250 movies list with a rating of 9.6.
