Ram Gopal Varma and controversy walk hand-in-hand. The filmmaker's upcoming project Murder, based on the caste-based killing of Pranay Perumalla has landed into legal trouble. As per reports, Pranay's father Balaswamy has sought the court's help to ban the film. In response to the petition filed by Balaswamy, the Nalgonda court has reportedly ordered Miryalaguda police to file a case against Varma and the producer of the film. It is said that the case was registered under Section 153A (Promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony) and under other sections of IPC and SC/ST POA Amendment Act, 2015.
Reacting to the case filed against Murder, Varma, on Twitter, shared a series of tweets to defend himself. He stated that the film doesn't attempt to 'demean or degrade anyone' but is a piece of creative work based on the information available. He also said that there is no mention of any particular person's caste. Varma added that his lawyers will look into the matter. "With regard to media speculations on the case filed on my film MURDER ,I once again want to reiterate that my film is based and inspired from a true incident and it is not the truth ..Also there’s no mention of anyone’s caste in the film," he tweeted. "With regard to the case filed on the basis of uninformed speculations,our advocates will give an appropriate reply as required by law," Varma added.
With regard to media speculations on the case filed on my film MURDER ,I once again want to reiterate that my film is based and inspired from a true incident and it is not the truth ..Also there’s no mention of anyone’s caste in the film pic.twitter.com/apiT6rKJDn
— Ram Gopal Varma (@RGVzoomin) July 5, 2020
With regard to the case filed on the basis of uninformed speculations,our advocates will give an appropriate reply as required by law pic.twitter.com/Fa6qQbFh84
— Ram Gopal Varma (@RGVzoomin) July 5, 2020
The filmmaker, in another tweet, said, "I specifically mentioned that I have no intention to demean or degrade anyone and my film is just a creative work based on a subject which is in the public domain ..But as a citizen who respects the law i too will proceed legally to protect my fundamental rights."
I specifically mentioned that I have no intention to demean or degrade anyone and my film is just a creative work based on a subject which is in the public domain ..But as a citizen who respects the law i too will proceed legally to protect my fundamental rights pic.twitter.com/61PlT8kUBW
— Ram Gopal Varma (@RGVzoomin) July 5, 2020
Murder is directed by Anand Chandra and jointly produced by Natti Karuna and Natti Kranthi. The story is by Varma. It is based on the killing of Pranay Perumalla in September 2018. It is reported that his wife Amrutha's father planned and executed the murder which was caught on a CCTV camera.
(Source: India Today/NDTV/Twitter)