Netflix Releases Episodes Of ‘Bad Boy Billionaires’ Amidst Legal Battle

What is ‘Bad Boy Billionaire’?

• 'Bad Boy Billionaires' is an Indian Netflix original documentary webseries of 2020.
• The series focuses on the lives of four prominent business tycoons of India who achieved success prior to being accused of corruption.
•  The business magnates include Vijay Mallya of Kingfisher Airlines, Subrata Roy of Sahara India and Nirav Modi and Ramalinga Raju of Satyam Computers.
•  Initially, the documentary was scheduled to be released on September 2, 2020.

The Reason for Controversy

• The documentary chronicles and exposes the truth and investigation on the major corruption scandals and money laundering scandals in India involving the business moguls.
•  The official trailer was unveiled on August 24, 2020 but subsequently got removed owing to legal issues.
• The Legal Battle (Fourth slide, heading in bold, followed by text)
•  On August 28, 2020 the Bihar District Court passed an interim stay order after 2 petitions were filed against the release of the documentary. One of the petitions was by Subrata Roy.
• Post the order, Netflix threatened to move to the Supreme Court against the restraining order on the documentary release.
• Soon after, the Diamond merchant Mehul Choksi filed a petition against the release of the documentary in the Delhi High Court and requested for the pre-screening of the documentary. He filed the plea on being informed that his involvement in the Punjab National Bank Scam was covered in the documentary. However, on August 29, 2020 a single judge panel dismissed his plea.
• Further, on September 1, 2020 the Hyderabad Civil Court issued a stay order restraining the release of the webseries after Ramalinga Raju filed a petition stating that the webseries only documented half-truths. He insisted that it would tarnish his reputation and that it violated his privacy.
• On September 2, 2020 the plea filed by Netflix was rejected by the Supreme Court of India and a stay order was issued on the release of the documentary.
• However, on October 5, 2020 Netflix released 3 out of the 4 episodes. It features Vijay Mallya, Subrata Roy and Nirav Modi. The episode on Ramalinga Raju was exempted.

Do you think the Netflix webseries violates the business tycoons’ rights? Share your thoughts in the comments below.