A bench of two judges from the Telangana High Court will watch an episode of the Netflix series ‘Bad Boy Billionaires’ that is based on the former president of Satyam Computers, B Ramalinga Raju. On Friday, the division bank was listening to a petition filed by Netflix Entertainment Services India seeking the release of the documentary.
The court noted that it would first watch the episode on Raju before deciding whether it should be allowed to be released on the over-the-top (OTT) platform. The next hearing in the case will take place on September 25.
Appearing on Netflix, lead attorney Neeraj Kishan Kaul claimed that the series is based on materials available in the public domain. “Stopping the release of the documentary just by watching a 49-second preview is an attack on the freedom of expression of the writers and filmmakers,” Kaul said while arguing that the trial court stopped the launch of the web series without listening to them.
On September 2, a civil court in Hyderabad blocked Netflix from releasing the documentary after Ramalinga Raju alleged that the episode contained ‘half-truths’ that would defame him and illegally invade his privacy. Furthermore, he argued that the episode would harm people at a time when his case against the conviction in the Satyam fraud case was still pending in the court of sessions.
Countering this argument, Netflix attorney Kishan Kaul claimed that the documentary would have no impact on Raju’s appeal that was filed after he had already been convicted in the case. “This is a case in which a court of first instance even convicted Raju of the crime. Everything is in the public domain. Where does the question of defamation come from?” Kaul argued.
For now, the division bank comprising Chief Justice Raghavendra Singh Chauhan and Judge A Abhishek Reddy have had access to watch the episode via a special web link and password provided by Netflix’s attorney. While listening to the case on Friday, the bank also suggested whether Raju’s attorney, Niranjan Reddy, should also be allowed a preview to clear up his doubts, but Netflix rejected the idea saying that “pre-launch approval, as a condition, if set, it would set a bad precedent. “
The controversial web series also tells the story of 3 other Indian billionaires: Vijay Mallya, Subrata Roy, Nirav Modi, their stupendous rise and fall from grace and power due to deep-rooted scams.
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