The Supreme Court refused to give an immediate hearing on the petition to protect the screening of ‘Thug Life’ in Karnataka. File | Photo Credit: Sushil Kumar Verma
The Supreme Court agreed to listen to the safe and surest screening of Kamal Haasan’s Tamil film ‘Thug Life’ in Karnataka on Monday (June 9, 2025) on 13 June, and directed the state government to take action against the elements who have issued violence against theaters and filmmakers.
A holiday bench chaired by Justice PK Mishra, based on a verbal mention made by the advocates for the petitioner for hearing for this week for this week, a Bengaluru resident M. Based on Mahesh Reddy, Advocates A. Represented by Vailon and Navpreet Kaur.
Ms. Kaur demanded an immediate listing of the writ petition, threatening to arson against the cinemas screening the film “Fringe Elements”.

Mr. Vailon said that to appeal to the apex court, the fact was that the Karnataka High Court “appeared perfectly to prioritize appeasement”.
“In order to prevent illegal threats instead of a clear instruction for the state and to protect the exhibition of a certified film, fundamental to restore the law and order, it is reportedly focused on whether Mr. Kamal Haasan should apologize to very fringe elements. Appeal as the last guardian of the Constitution, immediately appealed to the Supreme Court.

The petition questioned the “major failure” of the Government of Karnataka to maintain law and order in the state and protect constitutional freedom.
It said that Karnataka includes “unconstitutional additional-judicial sanctions” not from any legitimate process, but from a deliberate campaign of terror, to target linguistic minorities targeting large-scale communal violence against arson hall, and a chilling calls for anti-past opponents.
“This serious situation occurs within a disturbing social context, where fourteenistic elements have targeted linguistic minorities such as Hindi speakers in Bengaluru, who promote an atmosphere of fear, which now threatens constitutional order on this film … Even a film theater in Bengaluru, a film theater in Bengaluru, has stopped intimidation. The Rakshan Vedic (KRV) publicly threatened to ‘set the theaters on fire’, while social media was used to incite violent revival of the 1991 anti -Tamil riots, “the petition exposed.
Published – June 09, 2025 02:25 pm IST