Ram Gopal Varma's next offering, a movie based on the Miryalaguda honor killing case of Pranay Kumar by his father-in-law Maruthi Rao, titled Murder was stayed after Pranay Kumar's father had filed a petition in the Nalgonda court.
Police had earlier mentioned that Pranay’s father Balaswamy has filed a petition in Nalgonda Court stating that the film will affect the on-going trial of Pranay’s murder case, and the film should be stalled.
The Trial Court had held that the film, being made by the appellants was a purely commercial venture based on the life of the Amrutha who isthe respondent and wife of the deceased and her family.
Further, it was held that Amrutha had prima facie established that the film if allowed to be exhibited, would cause serious prejudice to her and her family.
Assailing this order of the Trial Court, an appeal was filed before the High Court of Telangana by Ram Gopal Varma.
The Telangana Court has now given Varma the green light to proceed with the movie but on one condition, that the real names of characters Amrutha, Maruthi Rao, and Pranay Kumar be changed.
The High Court, in its order, noted, "The events which have occurred in her life i.e., the alleged murder of her husband are admitted by her to be in the public domain.
The counsel for the respondent did not deny that there was also a wide range of reporting in the local newspapers and cable TV channels.
The Court observed that a person undoubtedly has a right to privacy in relation to her family, marriage, procreation, motherhood, and child-bearing and none can publish anything concerned with these matters without his/her consent.
Yet, the Court said, "There is an exception to the said rule i.e., that any publication concerning these aspects would become unobjectionable if such publication is based upon public records including court records.
The filmmaker has also shared a poster of the movie along with the tweet. Ram Gopal Varma had also tried to make his stance earlier when Balaswamy moved the court. He wrote in one of his tweets, “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.”
