Satyam Computers founder B Ramalinga Raju has filed an interim application in the Telangana High Court asking directions to Netflix to show him the episode of ‘Bad Boy Billionaires’ which is based on him before it is released.
According to the Times of India, Raju moved an application before a bench of Chief Justice Raghvendra Singh Chauhan and Justice A Abhishek Reddy, which is hearing a plea filed by Netflix against the order of the Hyderabad civil court which had restrained the release of the episode on Raju. Raju has stated in his application that the makers of the film “collected information about the ancestry of his family through trickery.”
“We have doubts whether the filmmakers used their discretion in distinguishing data from public domain and record,” Raju’s counsel said, as per the TOI report.
The bench has now asked Netflix to respond to Raju’s plea by October 9.
Netflix has released the four-part documentary-series with three episodes, sans the one based on Ramalinga Raju. The series was originally slated to stream from September 2 but was delayed due to the legal tussle.
Earlier, a Hyderabad civil court had issued a stay order barring the digital platform from streaming the show. The order was issued following a petition by Ramalinga Raju. An order had also been passed by the Araria district court in Bihar based on the Sahara group's argument that the show would damage Subrata Roy's image. Later, after the Araria court vacated the stay, three episodes of the film were released.
The episodes available on Netflix feature Nirav Modi, Subrata Roy and Vijay Mallya. The three episodes currently streaming are titled "The King Of Good Times" (episode on Mallya), "Diamonds Aren't Forever" (Nirav Modi), and "The World's Biggest Family" (Subrata Roy). The brief synopsis provided of the show by the website says: "This investigative docuseries explores the greed, fraud, and corruption that built up -- and ultimately brought down -- India's most infamous tycoons."
With agency inputs