Amitabh Bachchan-starrer Jhund has been released on Zee5 on May 6. The film, directed by Sairat-fame Nagraj Manjule, focuses on the life of Vijay Barse. Barse is a soccer coach who founded Slum Soccer, an organisation aimed at uplifting underprivileged children through football.
Barse encourages street children to form football team and find a purpose in life. He also manages to organise a National Football Tournament for slum soccer players across India to select a best team for International Slum Football.
It features Amitabh Bachchan, Akash Thosar and Rinku Rajguru in lead roles. Jhund marks the first collaboration between Bachchan and Manjule. Nagraj Manjule became popular with the Marathi superhit flick Sairat. Sairat was later adapted into Dhadak, which marked the Bollywood debut of Janhvi Kapoor and Ishan Khatter.
The film was made at a budget of Rs 22 crore and raked in only Rs 15.16 crore at the box office. Jhund was announced in February 2019 and was supposed to hit theatres in May 2020 but was postponed repeatedly due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court stayed a Telangana High Court order which prohibited the exhibition of the Nagraj Manjule-directorial on Zee5. The plea filed by Hyderabad-based filmmaker Nandi Chinni Kumar in the Telangana High Court alleged copyright violation by the makers of Jhund.
A two-judge bench comprising Justices Indira Banerjee and AS Bopanna said the High Court overlooked principles concerning interim relief in such matters and said that prima facie, the impugned order was against the balance of convenience.
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