Chennai: A gag order on media, which shielded superstar Rajinikanth’s family from criticism and prevented publication of news relating to money deals done during his flopped film ‘Kochadaiyaan’, is off now.
Vacating an interim injunction granted last year, Justice R Subbiah on Tuesday said: “Every citizen has a right to safeguard the privacy of his own, his family, marriage, procreation, motherhood and education, among other matters. If any publication was made with regard to privacy of the citizen without his consent, then definitely he is entitled to injunction. But, in this case, the publication was made only in respect of commercial transaction that had taken place. When that being so, this court cannot grant an injunction as sought for.”
The order of interim injunction was issued by the court on December 8, 2014 against various media organizations, restraining them from publishing any news item, including a police complaint lodged by the film’s two financiers — Ad Bureau and Madhubala Nahar. Justice Subbiah said: “I do not find anything wrong in publication of news item in newspapers. Press reports cannot be treated as defamatory statement.”
The issue relates to Rs 10 crore that MediaOne, which produced ‘Kochadaiyaan’, had obtained as loan from Ad Bureau and chartered accountant Madhubala Nahar in April 2014, when the Rs 150-crore film was facing funds crunch for post-production work.
Rajinikanth’s wife Latha Rajinikanth signed as guarantor after the financier assured them a loan of Rs 30 crore. When media reports started surfacing about the default in repayment, MediaOne filed a suit, based on which the gag order was issued.
Ad Bureau and Madhubala Nahar sought to lift the restraint order saying they had 35 year experience in film financing and that they advanced the loan only on Latha Rajinikanth’s personal guarantee.
The court examined the question whether a police complaint could be reported by the media, and whether it could be treated as defamatory. The judge said such issues should be approached on a case-to-case basis.
