Jai Bhim Row: Vanniyar Sangam sends legal notice to Suriya & team demanding apology, Rs 5 cr in damages

Angered on the "wrongful" depiction of the Vanniyar group in the Tamil movie 'Jai Bhim', starring Suriya, the Vanniyar Sangam president, Pu. Tha. Arulmozhi, has despatched a legal notice to the producers, director and Amazon, which operates the OTT platform Prime Video, the place the movie is being streamed. The notice, which claims Rs 5 crore in damages and a public apology, was issued to 2D Entertainment, Suriya Sivakumar and his spouse Jyothika, as a result of their firm A.Okay. International has co-produced the movie, the director-screenwriter T.J. Gnanavel and Amazon.According to the legal notice, the film is claimed to have been primarily based on a real-life incident and its storyline attracts upon a call of the Madras High Court.It retains the names of the individuals who have been concerned in the incidents proven in the movie, so we have now a Rajakannu, Advocate Chandru and the police officer Perumalsamy. The identify of the sub-inspector of police concerned in the custodial dying of an undertrial, nevertheless, in accordance to the legal notice, was "deliberately" modified from Anthonysamy to Gurumurthy, and he'srepeatedly referred to as 'Guru'.In one of many scenes in the film, the notice factors out, the 'Agni Kundam' (fireplace burning from a holy vessel) image of the Vanniyar Sangam is proven in the calendar behind the sub-inspector of police, who commits the atrocity.The notice says that the makers of 'Jai Bhim' had "deliberately" obtained a calendar made for the 12 months 1995 with the 'Agni Kundam'. He stated it had been accomplished with the (*5*)According to the Vanniyar Sangam, altering the identify of the villain to Gurumurthy, which resembles that of certainly one of its frontline leaders, and projecting him to be from the group by displaying its 'Agni Kundam' image, implied that the members of the group are susceptible to committing wrongs and taking unlawful actions."My client states that by various symbolic representations in your movie, you have wantonly, wilfully and intentionally portrayed the character of the sub-Inspector of police, who is guilty of committing a custodial death in the film and also in the real-life story, belongs to Vanniyar community, whereas the said sub-Inspector does not belong to Vanniyar community," the notice states."It cannot be considered as a casual, innocent, inadvertent mistake and natural sequence in the movie," the legal notice reads. It provides that the scene was included solely "with a view to maligning the image of the Vanniyar community people in the society and with a view to defaming the entire community as a whole."Apart from demanding Rs 5 crore in damages, the Vanniyar Sangam has additionally sought the elimination of the "defamatory scenes", references to the Vanniyar group and its image, the 'Agni Kundam', from the film. And it has sought an unconditional apology from the movie's producers and author for tarnishing the repute of Vanniyars.Earlier, PMK chief and Rajya Sabha MP Anbumani Ramadoss had written to Suriya citing the objectionable parts in the film, alleging that they intentionally focused the Vanniyars.Responding to the cost, Suriya had identified that the 'Jai Bhim' unit had put out a disclaimer proper firstly of the film, saying that this was a narrative that had solely been impressed by an actual incident and that the characters, names and occasions have been fully fictional.