Netflix India releases three episodes of ‘Bad Boy Billionaires’ amid legal tussle

Company Reporter

Netflix has partially launched its much-awaited collection on 4 Indian tycoons going through fraud allegations after a state court docket lifted an injunction over the weekend, a lawyer representing Netflix stated on Monday.

The “Unhealthy Boy Billionaires: India” documentary collection about liquor tycoon Vijay Mallya, Subrata Roy of the Sahara group, IT govt Ramalinga Raju and jeweler Nirav Modi was set for launch final month.

Netflix, the world’s largest streaming service, suspended the present’s launch after an order from the Araria district court docket in Bihar the place the Sahara group argued it could harm Roy’s fame.

Late on Saturday, the court docket lifted the injunction, stated Amit Shrivastava, a lawyer for Netflix.

He declined to remark additional and it was not instantly clear why the court docket overturned its earlier order. The official order is but to be launched.

Netflix didn’t reply to a request for remark.

A spokesman for Sahara additionally didn’t reply. Roy is presently on bail, having been ordered by a court docket to repay billions of to traders in a scheme that was discovered to be unlawful.

Roy denied wrongdoing within the case and his counsel has stated he already has repaid traders.

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Some Netflix exhibits in India have confronted court docket challenges and police complaints for obscenity or for hurting non secular sentiments.

The continued authorized spat is among the many most high-profile ones Netflix has confronted in India, one in every of its key progress markets.

The streaming firm had argued that halting the present’s launch “freezes free speech” and hurts the corporate financially, Reuters has reported.

On Monday, Netflix made three of the 4 episodes within the collection out there on its app for viewers in India. The episode specializing in Raju was unavailable.

Raju, who was accused of a $1 billion accounting fraud greater than a decade in the past, has obtained a separate injunction on its telecast from a court docket in south India.

The case can be heard in a while Monday, A Venkatesh, a lawyer for Raju, instructed Reuters.

The opposite two tycoons – Modi and Mallya – are going through extradition makes an attempt and are presently within the UK. Each have denied wrongdoing.

(Reuters/NAN)