AIADMK politician and former MLA RM Babu Murugavel has issued a legal notice to the director and producer of Sarpatta Parambarai, Pa Ranjith, streaming platform Amazon Prime Video, co-writer Tamizh Prabha and the co-producer of the movie, Shanmugam Dakshanraj, alleging that some of the scenes in the film were factually inaccurate. Sarpatta Parambarai is set in Chennai, around the time of the Emergency in the mid-1970s, and focuses on the fight between two rival boxing clans, the Sarpatta and Idiyappa Parambarai. Some of the characters in the feature film are shown to be affiliated with the DMK and AIADMK parties.
In the legal notice, Babu Murugavel has alleged that the dialogue in the movie that discusses the arrest of the then Chief Minister’s son, and says, “The Chief Minister’s son was also arrested under the Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA)” is factually incorrect. The AIADMK politician has alleged that the dialogue is misleading and cited that no such incident took place in reality when the then Chief Minister, M Karunanidhi was in power.
Elaborating how MK Stalin was not arrested under the MISA Act, Babu Murugavel, who is the State Joint Secretary of AIADMK’s legal wing, has alleged that the scenes were kept by the makers to favour the DMK. It further stated that some of the scenes in the film shows “false propaganda” and contains “politically motivated verses” to support the ruling government in Tamil Nadu.
The notice also scrutinises over-the-top (OTT) platform Amazon Prime Video for “forgoing its responsibility” of verifying the facts presented in feature films before the material is available for streaming on their platform. The AIADMK politician’s notice demanded that the makers of the movie should remove certain dialogues and sequences from the movie or back them with factual evidence. It also demanded the makers to acknowledge that the dialogue that allegedly discusses MK Stalin’s arrest during the emergency, should be identified as “misleading”.
The makers of Sarpatta Parambarai are yet to comment on the issue. The Ranjith directorial which started streaming on Amazon Prime Video from July 22, features an ensemble cast including actors Arya, Sanchana Natarajan, Shabeer Kallarakkal, John Kokken, Kalaiyarasan, Dushara Vijayan, Anupama Kumar and Santhosh Prathap, among others.