Actress Tamannaah Bhatia has reportedly been summoned by the Maharashtra Cyber Wing to appear in court regarding the unauthorized streaming of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 matches on FairPlay, a sister app of the Mahadev betting app. This action violates the broadcast rights held by the Viacom 18 group.
The prominent actress from ‘Baahubali,’ who is under investigation for allegedly promoting the viewing of IPL matches on the Fairplay betting app, is scheduled to provide testimony before the Cyber Cell on April 29.
Sanjay Dutt’s involvement in the case has come to light, and he was summoned for questioning earlier this week. However, he requested a rescheduled date due to scheduling conflicts preventing him from attending.
According to the news source, Viacom suffered a loss of crores of rupees due to the illicit streaming.
The Maharashtra cyber police had previously interrogated Bollywood musician and rapper Badshah, as well as the managers of actors Sanjay Dutt and Jacqueline Fernandez, on suspicions of promoting the betting app and encouraging its usage for streaming cricket matches.
ABOUT THE CASE
The legal action arises from a First Information Report (FIR) filed in 2023 by the Viacom 18 group, accusing Fairplay of illicitly streaming certain IPL 2023 matches, with many actors endorsing and advertising the betting app.
Viacom18, the owner of VOOT, an OTT platform, and several television channels, found through its anti-piracy efforts in October 2021 that seven apps—Pikashow, Foxi, Vedu, Smart Player Lite, Film Plus, Tea TV, and Wow TV—were being utilized to illegally stream serials, reality shows, and other content from the Viacom18 network.
A complaint was lodged against these applications, accusing them of displaying Viacom 18 content for monetary gain without acquiring the requisite licenses, resulting in losses exceeding ₹100 crore for the company.