Viewers keenly waiting to watch the stories of India’s rogue billionaires unfold on screen in Netflix‘s intriguing ‘Bad Boy Billionaires: India’ will have to wait a bit longer for the docuseries to stream on Netflix. That is because B Ramalinga Raju, founder of Satyam Computer Services, one of the disgraced tycoons featured in the docuseries, filed and won a case in a Hyderabad Civil Court, restraining Netflix from streaming the series.
Raju filed a plea saying that the series is full of half-truths, which would ‘invade his privacy in an unlawful manner.’ Ramalinga Raju fudged accounts and swindled the exchequer of millions of rupees through his company, Satyam Computers.
The court has ruled in Raju’s favour and stayed the airing of Bad Boy Billionaires.
Subrata Roy, the chairman of the Sahara conglomerate, has also dragged Netflix to court over his inclusion in the series. The Bihar Court, where the case was admitted, has granted a stay on the use of Subrata Roy’s name in the promos of the series until the matter is settled.
As per Subrata Roy’s lawsuit, “the aim of the series is to malign his public image by featuring him alongside fugitive billionaires such as Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi”. Subrata Roy has also asserted that he was approached by Netflix to appear in a series called Billionaires, but instead was featured on Bad Boy Billionaires. The inclusion could have an adverse effect on Roy’s company, the Sahara Group.
The Bihar court has ordered Netflix to stop advertising the series, and for using Subrata Roy’s name until the case is settled. As a result, Netflix removed the trailer of Bad Boy Billionaires from its app; though it is still available on YouTube if anyone wants to watch it.
Subrata Roy is the chairman of the Sahara Group, and is accused of swindling millions of investors out of billions of rupees in investments in Sahara’s multiple projects and schemes. He had even spent several years in jail for his misdemeanours, until his lawyers got him released on bail.
Bad Boy Billionaires has created a huge buzz among viewers owing to its controversial topic. The Netflix show focuses on India’s infamous four billionaire businessmen, who have swindled investors and Indian public sector banks of thousands of crores, two of whom have fled the country after pulling off financial scams of thousands of crores of rupees.
The show documents the rise and fall of disgraced Indian tycoons Vijay Mallya, of the defunct Kingfisher Airlines, Nirav Modi, who ran an eponymous label, Subrato Roy of Sahara, and Byrraju Ramalinga Raju of the defunct Satyam Computers.
Nirav Modi’s uncle, Mehul Choksi, whose mention also crops up in the series, had earlier moved Delhi High Court against Netflix, asking for a preview of the show. Proclaiming innocence, Choksi, who is holed up in Antigua since fleeing the country, was worried that what is shown in the Netflix show Bad Boy Billionaires may sway the judiciary’s opinion against him and cause damage to his endeavour to prove himself innocent. Delhi High Court justice Naveen Chawla had however rejected his petition.
But what Mehul Choksi and Subrata Roy couldn’t do, Ramalinga Raju has done —winning the case against Netflix and stopping its streaming, at least for now. Netflix will fight the case to assert its rights to showcase the series on its platform.
Until then, audiences’ wait to know the inside story of these Indian Bad Boy Billionaires just got longer!
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