“Glorifies Violence”: Plea In Madras High Court Seeks FIR Against Director Lokesh Kanagaraj, Revoking License Of “Leo” Movie

Though the case was taken up by a bench of Justice D Krishnakumar and Justice R Vijayakumar, since there was no representation, the matter was adjourned.

The petitioner, Raja Murugan of Madurai, a social activist and an advocate by profession, approached the Madurai bench of the Madras High Court alleging that the movies directed by Kanagaraj encouraged and glorified violence and were neither educative nor entertaining to watch. Murugan also contended that Kanagaraj was a 'psychopath' as in all of his movies, killing women was a common feature and his mental state also needed to be checked with a psychologist.

Pointing to the recent “Leo” movie, Murugan alleged that the movie violated almost 80% of the provisions of the Indian Penal Code as it showed mass killing of people, drugs, alcohol, harassment of women, cruelty and violence, and use of powerful weapons like knife, iron rod, etc. He added that the movie also showed making explosives at home, impersonation, and crimes against religion by using different religious symbols and promoting revenge.

He added that in a democratic country like India, where the judicial system was working hard on punishing the accused and trying to fix the society against drugs, murder, religious conflicts, etc, Kanagaraj's movies were encouraging and educating youth about drugs, weapons, different ways to kill people, and fashionably make punishable offences.

Murugan added that the actors in the movie should make a disclaimer before the movie saying that all the acts were just for the movie and not to try the same at home, at least for 5 minutes.

Murugan also submitted that the violent movies that were being made by Kanagaraj also posed an increased risk of anxiety. He added that some studies indicated that viewing aggression activated the regions of the brain responsible for regulating emotions including aggression and viewing violence was linked with an increased risk for aggression, anger, and indifference to the feelings of others.

Thus, he sought to register an FIR against the director and his team of “Leo” under Section 120b, 153AA, 195, 276, 307, 323, 354, 506 of the IPC and Section 25 of the Arms Act.

Case Title: Raja Murugan v The Director Lokesh Kanagaraj