Filmmaker Ram Gopal Verma booked for derogatory post against Andhra CM

According to a complaint, the promotional materials the director shared for his film, Vyooham, and its promotional material try to tarnish the current CM and his family.

Hyderabad: Veteran filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma was booked by Andhra Pradesh police on Tuesday, November 12 for allegedly sharing derogatory posts on social media containing morphed images of Andhra chief minister Chandrababu Naidu and his close aides.

The social media post allegedly contained morphed images of the chief minister, his son and state minister Nara Lokesh, his wife, and AP’s deputy chief minister Pawan Kalyan.

The case was registered at the Maddipadu police station in Prakasam district based on a complaint from a local Telugu Desam Party (TDP) leader Ramalingam.

Prakasam district superintendent of police (DSP) A R Damodar said to PTI “We registered a case against Ram Gopal Varma for morphing the photographs of the CM (Naidu), deputy CM (Pawan Kalyan) and his family members in an offensive way.”

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The complaint says that the promotional materials Ram Gopal Verma shared for his film, Vyooham, allegedly tarnished Naidu and his family.

Vyooham is set on the story of former chief minister YS Rajashekhar Reddy’s death and the subsequent rise of his son in the Andhra polity. The film was initially scheduled to be released in February 2024 but was pushed to a later date due to the Lok Saba elections. The movie reportedly shows characters that portray Chandrababu Naidu and Jana Sena Party leader Pawan Kalyan in negative shades.

Ram Gopal Varma and his films have earlier been in controversies with his 2019 film Lakshmi’s NTR running into major soup for narrating former Andhra Pradesh CM and Tollywood stalwart NT Rama Rao’s life. The movie portrayed the chief minister Chandrababu Naidu in negative shades, drawing massive outrage from the TDP party cadre in the state.