Bengaluru Court Restrains Defamatory Content, Orchestrated Negative Ratings Against Telugu Film 'Jetlee'

A City Civil and Sessions Court in Bengaluru has granted an ad-interim ex parte injunction restraining social media platforms and online users from publishing defamatory and unverified content against the Telugu film "Jetlee," observing that such material could damage the film's image and cause huge loss to the plaintiff ahead of its May 1 release.

In its order dated April 29, 2026, the court held that the plaintiff “appears to have made out prima-facie case” and noted the threat of defamatory and unverified content being circulated against the film on digital platforms.

“Plaintiff at this stage appears to have made out prima-facie case and established the grounds against the defendants as the plaint averments and documents produced discloses that, there is a threat of propagating defamatory and unverified statements against the Plaintiff's film 'Jetlee' in the news channel and social media.”

The court further held that allowing such content to circulate would harm the film's reputation and finances.

“If the defendants posts any false and defamatory, unverified articles against Plaintiff's film 'Jetlee', then definitely the image of the Plaintiff's film 'Jetlee' will be damaged and it may cause huge loss to the Plaintiff.”

Clap Entertainment, in its plaint, stated that it is the producer and rights holder of the Pan-Indian Telugu film “Jetlee”, starring Satya Akkala and Rhea Singha, which is scheduled to be released on May 1, 2026. The court order, however, records the plaintiff as the distributor of the film.

The plaintiff submitted that it has invested around Rs 20 crore towards the production, post-production, marketing, publicity and distribution of the film. It alleged that even prior to release, unidentified users, influencers and online accounts had initiated coordinated negative campaigns, including review-bombing, circulation of manipulated ratings, trolling and abusive commentary aimed at damaging the film's prospects.

The plaint stated that the lead actor was being singled out for abusive and derogatory remarks, including comments on his appearance and suitability for the role, alongside attempts to portray the film as a “100% FLOP cinema” even before its release.

It further referred to several instances of derogatory remarks and negative comments to show what it described as a deliberate attempt to distort public perception of the film ahead of its release.

The plaintiff also alleged that such content was being circulated across platforms operated by X Corp, YouTube, Google, BookMyShow, IMDb and Meta, often through anonymous or unverified accounts.

The Court also noted that failure to grant interim protection would undermine the purpose of the suit.

“In the event of not restraining the defendants, the very purpose of filing of the suit will be defeated, causing loss to the plaintiff and also multiplicity of suit.”

Accordingly, the Court restrained the defendants, their agents, assignees and all persons acting on their behalf, including influencers and anonymous users, from publishing, posting, circulating, hosting or communicating any false, defamatory, derogatory or malicious content relating to the film.

The Court further issued directions to online platforms to remove and restrict access to such content.

“Defendants, their agents, assignees, their representatives, or any other persons or entities acting under their authority or instructions including content commentators, influencers, anonymous users and similar participants are hereby restrained by way of ad-interim ex-parte temporary injunction from publishing, circulating, sharing, hosting, streaming, providing access to or otherwise communicating any false, defamatory, derogatory, malicious, unverified or harmful content including challenging feedback, trolling, false narratives, personal attacks, reaction videos, community polls, boycott campaigns or other malicious material relating to the Plaintiff's film 'Jetlee'.”

The Court also directed platforms to take down and block such content across their systems.

“The defendants are also directed to de-index, de-reference and render non searchable all existing defamatory content and substantially similar future links/URLs across search engines and internal platform searches thereby ensuring the permanent suppression of such material and further directed the defendants to block the defamatory or orchestrated negative responses or ratings uploaded on any social media platforms, web-sites or movie booking or rating portals whether in the form of text, voiceover, face-cam content, reaction videos, manipulated ratings or any other format.”

The court further restrained the defendants from engaging in coordinated attempts to influence public perception of the film.

“The defendants are further restrained from engaging in, participating or facilitating orchestrated rating manipulation, artificial bulk-based ticket feedback, coordinated down-ranking or any other activity intended to distort, diminish, or misrepresent the public perception, ratings or reception of the Plaintiff's film 'Jetlee' till the date of next hearing.”

The matter has been posted for further hearing on August 7, 2026.