The Telangana High Court on Wednesday refused to stay the release of the ‘Razakar’ movie.
A Bench of Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice Anil Kumar Jukanti disposed the writ petition filed by the Association for Protection of Civil Rights (APCR), seeking an order staying the release of the controversial movie titled ‘Razakar: Silent genocide of Hyderabad’, at scrutiny stage.
The petition was lodged by the organisation’s secretary Mohammed Wasiq Nadim Khan.
Advocate Afsar Jahan, Vice President of APCR’s Telangana Chapter and the petitioner’s counsel contended that the movie, if released, was likely to hurt communal sentiments. It would trigger enmity between Hindu and Muslim communities and disturb law-and-order situation, he added.
The advocate further stated that the movie, with its distorted and biased historical narrative, demonises the Muslim community and portrays them in bad light.
The trailer of the film, which revolves around the incidents related to the Hyderabad Annexation in 1948, focuses only on alleged atrocities against Hindus, with many saying this is another propaganda film aiming to stoke communal tension.
After hearing the arguments, the bench observed that the petitioner had not challenged the certificate issued to the movie by the Central Board of Film Certification.
Additionally, the bench gave liberty to the petitioner to look for further remedial measures available under the law. It also noted that a direction to stay the release of a film cannot be demanded merely based on the trailer.
The Razakar movie, scheduled for release on Friday in Telugu, Hindi, Tamil, Kannada, and Malayalam, is produced by BJP leader Gudur Narayana Reddy and directed by Yata Satyanarayana.
While the Hindu nationalists lauded the film, the trailer met strong criticism from different corners as it contained communally flammable elements.
The film was earlier slated to be released before Telangana Assembly held in November last year.
Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) working President KT Rama Rao (KTR) had in September 2023 stated that the then BRS government would stop the movie’s release and take the issue to the censor board.
However, the release eventually got delayed amid the outrage against the film continued spread for spreading anti-Muslim hate and casteism.
