Telangana HC slaps Rs 10 lakh cost on filmmaker seeking stay on 'Jhund'

HYDERABAD: The Telangana High Court on Friday slapped a cost of Rs10 lakh on Hyderabad-based filmmaker Nandi Chinni Kumar who had filed a petition seeking stay on the release of Amitabh Bachchan-starrer ‘Jhund’.

The court directed Kumar to pay the amount to PM Covid-19 Relief Fund within a month. In case the petitioner fails to pay the sum, the district collector would recover itunder Revenue Recovery Act within 30 days and remit it to the PM Fund. A bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Abhinand Kumar Shavili, which had already declined to stall the release of the movie, asked counsel for the petitioner as to why he suppressed information pertaining to the case he had filed at a lower court on the same subject.

The court was told a compromisehad already arrived between the makers of the movie and Kumar. As part of this, Kumar was paid Rs5 crore. However, Kumar approached the high court, seeking a stay on the release of ‘Jhund’, claiming the settlement was due to wrong inducement. ‘Jhund’, a biographical sports film based on the life of Vijay Barse, the founder of NGO ‘Slum Soccer’, was released in theaters on Friday. Barse is the coach of Akhilesh Paul and Kumar claims he bought exclusive rights in Nov 2017 to make a film, ‘Slum Soccer’, on the life of Akhilesh Paul