Journalist Sandhya Ravishankar slams Parineeti Chopra's Reporting Live for using her story without giving credits

Parineeti Chopra in Reporting Live. Pic via X

Parineeti Chopra's Reporting Live, directed by Dhruv Tripathi, dropped on Netflix earlier this month rather quietly. The film, which marks Tripathi's directorial debut, also starred Deven Bhojani in the lead. It follows the story of a television reporter named Sandhya Yadav and her video journalist, Vinod Sharma, as they uncover an illegal sand mining and construction scam. Weeks after its premiere, renowned journalist Sandhya Ravishankar has called out the makers of the film for 'stealing' her story. In her latest tweet, the senior journalist alleged that she had pitched her story to Netflix in 2022 and again in 2023, but did not get credit.

Sandhya Ravishankar calls out Reporting Live

According to Sandhya, Reporting Live is based on her story. In her tweet, the reporter tagged Netflix and wrote, "The next time you want to name a reporter character Sandhya, show her uncovering illegal sand mining, create a Tamil villain, and pick bits and pieces from MY real life story which was pitched to you TWICE in 2022 and 2023, AND not give me any credit at the least.... Think hard and well."

Further calling Reporting Live a 'supremely crappy movie with ham performances', she added Parineeti was nothing like her. She wrote, "In fact she was nothing like any reporter and the newsroom portrayal was idiotic and amateurish."

Further addressing the makers, she added, "You've been clever enough to try and escape a lawsuit by altering the story enough. You owe me a public apology at the very least but I'm certain you have no moral fibre in you to do so. Shame on you all, especially the director-writer Dhruv Tripathi. Stealing other people's hard work and making money sneakily out of it."

For the unversed, Sandhya Ravishankar reportedly did a major investigative story involving alleged large-scale illegal beach sand mining in Tamil Nadu, especially in the southern coastal districts of Thoothukudi (Tuticorin), Tirunelveli and Kanniyakumari. She is an independent investigative journalist who exposed alleged illegal mining operations that involved influential mining companies, such as V.V. Mineral, owned by businessman S. Vaikundarajan.

About Reporting Live

Apart from Parineeti and Deven, Reporting Live also stars Amol Palekar, Adil Hussain and Shekhar Suman. Dhruv Tripathi marks his directorial debut with the film, and has also co-written it with Mihir Jadhav. The film is produced by Partha Kiran Thakur and Joshua Shirsath.

According to its synopsis, Reporting Live follows the story of a determined reporter and her cameraman, who follow a tragic incident and are led in a world where ‘brown gold' is worth killing for. The closer they get to the truth, the closer they get to danger.