Hyderabad Court Asks Rapido To Remove Ad Featuring Allu Arjun That Showed TSRTC In Negative Light

TSRTC claims that the commercial, which is broadcast on television and the internet, defames and disparages the decades-old State-owned Road Transport Corporation.

Rapido Ad (Image :ABP Desam)

Telangana: Hyderabad city court has restrained app-based bike taxi aggregator Rapido from airing and distributing a commercial. The advertisement featuring Tollywood actor Allu Arjun was found to portray the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation in negative light.

In its order, the 10th Junior Civil Judge of the City Civil Court said Rapido can't telecast, broadcast, stream, reproduce, distribute, make available to the public, and communicate the original and modified versions of the ad films on their websites or through the internet in any manner. The content of the commercial was found to be defamatory to the bus services run by the TSRTC.

The court also ordered that the original and modified versions of the commercial video be removed from YouTube, Google's online video sharing platform.

Rapido has been airing commercials for the past month. In the ad, Allu Arjun indicated that travelling in TSRTC buses is "uncomfortable and dangerous" by showcasing a TSRTC bus that Rapido hired for the advertisement.

After being served the TSRTC notice, Rapido slightly modified content of the ad film. However, the commercial continued to display the TSRTC bus. Since the taxi aggregator did not stop airing the ads on YouTube and various channels, the TSRTC moved the court seeking relief.

Appearing for the TSRTC, Senior counsel K. Vivek Reddy argued that Rapido was entitled to promote its services but not by making defamatory statements about the corporation and public transport.

He called the TSRTC a responsible state-run organisation that makes many efforts to ensure passenger safety. He also said that making such false and disparaging claims about it was against the law.

Reacting to the court order, TSRTC Managing Director VC Sajjanar said the TSRTC is a state-run decades old corporation that has been serving the transportation needs of lakhs of people every day.

(With inputs from ABP Desam — It is a Telugu platform of ABP News. For more news, commentary and latest happenings from two Telugu states, follow https://telugu.abplive.com/)