Chennai: Pu Tha Arulmozhi, state president of Vanniyar Sangam, has sent a legal notice to the producers, director and Amazon, for "wrongful" depiction of the Vanniyar community in the Tamil film 'Jai Bhim'.
The notice was issued to 2D Entertainment, actor Suriya Sivakumar and his wife Jyothika, as their company A.K. International has co-produced the film, director-screenwriter T.J. Gnanavel and Amazon Prime Video, where the film is being streamed.
The legal notice says that "the people belonging to Vanniyar community have been shown in very poor light" in the film. "My client states that you have claimed the movie is based upon a real-life story and the storyline of the movie is based upon the decision of the Hon’ble High Court of Madras," the notice reads.
"In one of the sequences in the movie, you have shown the symbol of Vanniyar Sangam in the calendar behind the Sub Inspector of Police who commits the atrocity of torture in the movie. You have deliberately got printed a calendar of the year 1995 with the symbol of “Agni Kundam” representing the Vanniyar Sangam and community," it says.
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"Our client states that you have retained the real names of most of the characters in the real incident in the movie also. But deliberately you have changed the name of the sub-inspector of police, who had tortured the victim in the police custody. You have deliberately named the sub-inspector of police as “Guru” resembling one of the frontline leaders of Vanniyar Sangam. You have projected the said wicked person, a wrongdoer, as if he belonged to the Vanniyar community thereby imputing that the members of the community are prone to commit wrong and illegal things while in real life the said Sub Inspector does not belong to Vanniyar Community," the notice says.
The notice says that the offending sequences are deliberately shown with a malafide intention to defame Vanniyar community people in the eyes of the public and this has incited disaffection amongst the people of other communities towards members of the Vanniyar community.
"The false, baseless, unverified and highly defamatory scenes and statements, imputations made by you against my client’s community constitute actionable defamation claim under both Criminal and Civil Law, for which all of you are jointly and severally liable," it reads.
The notice sought an unconditional apology from the producers and director of the film and Amazon Prime Video and also Rs 5 crore in damages within seven days from the time and date of receipt of the notice.
