Jayalalithaa's niece moves court to stall production of former CM's biopic

J Deepa Jayakumar claims she is the legal heir and the movie producers have no right to make movie on the former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa.
(L-R) Late Tamil Nadu CM Jayalalithaa; actress Kangana Ranaut. (Photos | EPS)
(L-R) Late Tamil Nadu CM Jayalalithaa; actress Kangana Ranaut. (Photos | EPS)

CHENNAI: J Deepa Jayakumar, the niece of former Chief Minister and AIADMK general secretary J Jayalalithaa, has moved the Madras High Court to restrain cinema director Gowtham Vasudev Menon (GVM) and AL Vijay and Vishnu Vardhan Induri from producing a bilingual biography on the life and history of her aunt.

Claiming her as the legal heir and direct descendant of Jayalalitha, Deepa in her application arising out of a civil suit said that the three did not have any legal right, power or authority to produce and release the film for public view, without her consent.

Deepa claimed that she, as a family member of Jayalalitha, had acquaintance in various parts of the latter's life. But, the trio had announced that they are proposing to produce the film on the biography of Jayalalitha titled `Thalaivi' in Tamil and `Jaya' in Hindi. Leading Hindi actress Kangana Ranaut has been identified to act as Jayalalitha in the Hindi version. It is a purely a commercial venture entered into, without her consent, she alleged.

Jayalalitha was a great political personality and her life story cannot be filmed without incorporating her association with the former leader, Deepa claimed. Hence, it would amount to intrusion in to her privacy, Deepa said. She was being kept in the dark about the whole production of the film. She was not made known about the story, script, screenplay and dialogue. There is every possibility of the producers portraying Jayalalitha and her in bad light, Deepa said.

Hence, the trio should not be allowed to go ahead with the production of the film or web serial or any similar ventures and release the same for public exhibition, she added. The matter is likely to come up for hearing on Monday.

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