Filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma moved the Supreme Court on Monday by challenging Andhra Pradesh High Court's stay on his latest directorial venture Lakshmi's NTR in Andhra Pradesh.
Lakshmi's NTR was slated for a grand release across the globe, including Andhra Pradesh on March 29. But the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) moved the AP HC, seeking a temporary stay on its release in the state. The TDP claimed that the movie portrays its chief Nara Chandrababu Naidu in a bad light, which will have a direct effect on the voters in the upcoming assembly elections in the state.
After hearing the TDP's plea, the AP HC issued an order to Ram Gopal Varma's team to stall the release of Lakshmi's NTR in the state till April 15. This order came in the evening March 28, hours before the movie hit the screens and it was a big shock for the director, who vowed to take this case to the Supreme Court.
Lakshmi's NTR hit the screens everywhere except AP on the scheduled date and was successful in impressing the filmgoers. Some filmgoers from AP, who were upset with the stay on the film, kept requesting the makers of release it in their areas, while a few travelled to Hyderabad and Bangalore. The film made decent collections at the worldwide box office in the first weekend.
Three days after its release, Ram Gopal Varma's legal team knocked the doors of the Supreme Court on Monday, challenging AP HC's stay on the release of Lakshmi's NTR. The director tweeted a couple of photos featuring his lawyers' team at the Supreme Court in Dehli.
Ram Gopal Varma captioned the photos with, "Advocates working to challenge the AP court stay on #LakshmisNTR in the Supreme Court." "Producer Rakesh Reddy outside the Supreme Court to fight for #LakshmisNTR's release in AP."
But the Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi refused an urgent hearing. ANI tweeted, "Supreme Court today refused to give an urgent hearing to an appeal filed against the stay on the release of director Ram Gopal Varma's film Lakshmi's NTR."
