Recently, the Tamil Film Active Producers Association filed a petition at Madras High Court asking the state government to ban reviews on social media and YouTube for the first three days after the release of a film. According to the latest reports, the court has turned down the petition.
The petition is a consequence of concerns from the association regarding the impact of early reviews on the commercial performance of a film. They feel that such opinions coming soon after the release of a film are likely to dissuade viewers from catching it in theatres, contributing to a financial loss for the makers.
Recently, there has been much discourse around this topic after the Kamal Haasan-Shankar film Indian 2 and the Suriya-Siva film Kanguva got plenty of negative feedback from audiences. For example, the producers association deemed these reviews "tasteless and hostile."
The court's decision to reject the association's petition reportedly stems from a consideration that the ban would breach freedom of speech and expression.