Why Journalist Sandhya Ravishankar Accuses Netflix’s Reporting Live of Stealing Her Sand Mining Expo — What She Said | Today’s news
Netflix’s ‘Reporting Live’ with Parineeti Chopra is under fire! Journalist Sandhya Ravishankar accused Netflix of retracting her original expose on illegal sand mining without credit or permission.
Directed by Dhruv Tripathi, Reporting Live also stars Deven Bhojani, Amol Palekar, Adil Hussain and Shekhar Suman among others.
The film revolves around reporter Parineeti Chopra and her cameraman Deven Bhojani, who investigate a tragic incident involving illegal sand mining, which the film describes as a highly profitable business.
As they continue their investigation, they find themselves face to face with powerful people who don’t want the truth to come out. What begins as an attempt to find answers soon threatens their lives.
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‘My Real Life Story’
In her public allegation, independent journalist Sandhya Ravishankar claimed that the film was a rip-off of her real life and that she offered it to the streaming giant twice.
“Hey Netflix India, the next time you want to name reporter Sandhya, show her exposing illegal sand mining, create a Tamil villain and take bits and pieces from MY real story that was offered to you TWICE in 2022 and 2023 AND don’t give me any credit at all… Think hard,” Ravishankar wrote.
“Absolutely lousy movie”
Sandhya Ravishankar also called ‘Reporting Live’ and Parineeti Chopra’s performances “idiotic and amateur”.
“Thankfully it was a very lousy ham film and Parineeti Chopra was not like me,” she wrote. “She didn’t really look like any reporter, and the portrayal in the newsroom was idiotic and amateurish.”
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“Clever escape” from the court
However, Sandhya Ravishankar noted that the filmmakers were “smart enough to try to escape the lawsuit by altering the story enough”.
“Shame on you all, especially the director and screenwriter Dhruv Tripathi. You are stealing other people’s hard work and making money from it sneakily,” she wrote, demanding a public apology.
“You owe me a public apology at the very least, but I’m sure you have no moral fiber for that,” she said.
LiveMint could not independently verify Sandhya Ravishankar’s claims. Netflix has yet to publicly comment on the claim.
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“I lived with this film for seven years”: Dhruv Tripathi
Ahead of the release of ‘Reporting Live’, director Dhruv Tripathi said he had been living with the film for 7 years and wanted to make a thriller that was “grounded and real”.
“I lived with this film for seven years, from writing it with Mihir to bringing it to the screen, so to see it ready to go out into the world is quite surreal,” he said in a statement.
“I was incredibly lucky to make it with an amazing cast and crew who brought so much to the film, and I’m really excited for audiences around the world to experience it on Netflix,” added Tripathi.