Popular Telugu film actor Prabhas moved the Hyderabad High Court on Wednesday, alleging that revenue authorities in the city were 'interfering' and trying to take possession of a property that he owned in the Raidurgam area.
Prabhas, whose full name is Uppalapati Venkata Satyanarayana Prabhas Raju, was represented by his counsel D V V Satyanarayana Raju. Prabhas in his petition said that he had purchased the land in 2005 and 2006 and paid more than Rs 1 crore for its regularisation. However, earlier this week, revenue authorities claimed that his application for regularisation of the land was still pending and attempted to demolish structures that had been built on the contested land.
The actor owns a guesthouse in the area and accused authorities of attempting to dispossess him without a notice.
When the case came up for hearing on Wednesday, the court said that the land was part of the property once owned by the 'Paigah' family, cases for which were being heard by a separate divison bench. The court ordered that the actor's plea also come up for hearing in front of the division bench concerned.
The Paigah family were aristocrats and noblemen during the reign of the Asaf Jahi dynasty in Hyderabad under the Nizam rule. Considered second only to the Nizam family, the Paigahs had held top positions in the feudal structure and also owned massive tracts of land worth several thousand crore in today's market.
While the state government and heirs of the family are locked in a legal battle over the ownership of the land on one side, several cases have also been filed in the courts over private individuals encroaching the land and regularising it by paying a sum to the state government.
“The Supreme Court recently gave a judgement that the entire 84 acres land in Survey No: 46 in Rai Durgam belongs to the government. Based on the SC judgement, we identified all the properties that fell under the said survey number and took them into our possession. Since his (Prabhas) house also happens to be under Survey No: 46, we went to the house and took possession,” Vasu Chandra, Deputy Collector, Serlingampally, told DC earlier this week.
At present, Prabhas, after the astounding success of the Baahubali franchise, is gearing up for the release of his upcoming film Sahoo.
Saaho, directed by Sujeeth, is bankrolled by V Vamshi Krishna Reddy and Pramod Uppalapati under the banner UV Creations on a budget of Rs 300 crore.