Court cannot restrain callers, HC tells student whose phone no appeared in 'Amaran'

The judge S Sounthar, however, told Kamal Haasan’s production house, Raajkamal Films International (RFKI), 'Amaran's director Rajkumar Periasamy, and the Central Board of Film Certification, to file a counter on the matter and posted the next hearing for December 20 for future proceedings.

The petitioner, V V Vaageesan, an engineering student from Alwarthirunagar in Chennai, filed a writ petition in the Madras high court asking to quash the Censor Board certificate issued to ‘Amaran' since his personal mobile phone number appeared in the movie. The student alleged that he was flooded with calls after the film's release and he was unable to study and it was causing him mental trauma.

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Cannot restrain calls, says judge

During the hearing today, appearing for the production house, the advocate submitted before the court that the scene has been removed and phone number was masked. He also submitted the Censor Board certificate after the modifications were made and said that nothing more survives in this case.

Earlier, when Vaageesan issued a legal notice to RKFI, the production company had apologised for their inadvertent mistake and masked the number before releasing the film on December 5 on Netflix.

However, the petitioner’s advocate said that the youth, his client, is still receiving the phone calls. To this, the judge responded that the court cannot restrain the calls but can ask the service provider to block all calls coming to his number. Is that ok for you? the judge asked.

Further, the judge observed that nothing from the main plea survives in the case. The court also turned down the petitioner's request to direct the service provider to give him the details of the calls received on his number.

"Your challenge was to the certificate. Now the objectionable content has been removed and a fresh certificate has been issued. Nothing survives now. Lots of inconvenience has been caused to you. No doubt. So you're at liberty to work out a remedy under the common law,” the judge orally remarked, according to LiveLaw.

Further, the judge observed that until your client retains the phone number he will continue to receive the calls.

However, the court issued notice to Bharti Airtel, the service provider and directed all parties to file the counter.

Also read: Amaran review: Gripping tragic tale of a martyr; slows down in second-half

The writ petition

After the production house apologised to him and masked his number, Vaageesan still went ahead and filed a writ seeking an interim injunction to prevent the release of the movie on OTT platforms until the writ is resolved.

Further, he requested Bharti Airtel Limited to be directed by the court to produce the incoming call records for his phone number from October 31, when the film was released.

Earlier, the student had sought compensation of ₹1.1 crores from Raajkamal Films International for displaying his phone number in the film and infringing on his privacy.

The petitioner said that he has received thousands of domestic and international calls round the clock ever since the movie's release on the eve of Deepavali. This has impacted his  normal routine and studies, forcing him to constantly keep the mobile in aeroplane mode.

In a scene in 'Amaran', the film's heroine, Sai Pallavi, shares a 10-digit phone number with Sivakarthikeyan's Mukund Varadharajan, which turned out to be Vaageesan's mobile number in real life!