Tamil film producers move HC seeking ban on movie reviews for three days from release

Fans outside a movie theatre in Chennai. File photo
| Photo Credit: The Hindu

Tamil Film Active Producers Association (TFAPA) has filed a writ petition in the Madras High Court seeking a direction to the Centre as well as the State government to ban review of movies for three days, from the date of their theaterical release, on social media platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and X.

Also read: Jyotika: Negative reviews for Suriya’s ‘Kanguva’ seem like propaganda

Justice S. Sounthar is slated to hear on Tuesday (December 3, 2024) the writ petition seeking the direction to the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting as well as the Information Technology and Digital Services department of Tamil Nadu government. TFAPA had filed the case through its counsel Vijayan Subramanian.

The petitioner association had also sought a direction to the Centre and the State government to frame guidelines to be followed by the online film critics while reviewing newly released movies either on their YouTube channels, X (formerly Twitter) handles, Facebook pages or such other social media platforms.

There had been an unrest in the film industry for quite sometime due to some big budget movies having failed miserably in the boxoffice due to a barrage of negative reviews that prop up online immediately after the release of the movies. Film makers and film critics had been at loggerheads over the issue.

Actor Suriya starrer Kanguva was the latest big budget movie that had to suffer negative online reviews and failed to impress at the box office. This led to a demand in the film industry for a ban on online movie reviews within three days of the release of a movie so that the film makers do not end up suffering huge losses.