Jayalalithaa biopic: Orders reserved on ‘Thalaivi’, ‘Queen’

Justice Senthil Kumar Ramamoorthy, who heard arguments on either side on Wednesday, reserved orders without announcing a date.

The plea relates to the announcement made by filmmakers AL Vijay, Vishnu Vardhan Induri and Gautham Vasudev Menon, to produce a biopic of late Jayalalithaa titled ‘Thalaivi’ in Tamil and ‘Jaya’ in Hindi besides a web series titled ‘Queen’.

While ‘Thalaivi’ and ‘Jaya’, directed by AL Vijay, is under production, ‘Queen’, directed by Gautham Menon, is slated for release on December 14.

Based on this, Deepa had sought to restrain them from going ahead with their project without her consent, as she was the legal heir of the late leader. She had contended that the filmmakers had not obtained any legal right to produce the movie on the life and times of either Jayalalithaa or any of the direct descendants of the leader without her consent.

She had also submitted that being a family member of Jayalalithaa, she was associated with important events in the late leader’s life and was hence apprehensive that filmmakers might portray the life of her aunt and hers as well in their “own version” affecting her privacy.

On Wednesday, Deepa submitted that the court may appoint a retired Madras High Court judge to see the movie and the web series and decide on the objections.

However, this was countered by the counsel appearing for Vishnu Vardhan Induri that the movie is based on the book titled ‘Thalaivi’ and that Deepa had not objected to the publication of numerous books written on Jayalalithaa including ‘Thalaivi’.

He also submitted that the book was registered under the Copyright Act and that Deepa had not raised objections during the pre-production work for the movie that has been going on for the past 18 months.

Regarding the web series ‘Queen’, Gautham Vasudev Menon submitted that his web series for which Rs 25 crore has been spent, is not connected to the life of late Jayalalithaa but is based on an English book titled ‘Queen’.