Shooter Who Killed Tigress Avni Mulls Legal Action Against Makers Of Sherni

Tigress Avni controversy: Hyderabad shooter Asghar Ali Khan is planning to take legal action against the makers of the Vidya Balan-starrer movie Sherni. He called the killing of tigress Avni or T1 "twisting of facts" and alleged that the movie projected him as "trigger-happy shooters".

Khan told IANS on Wednesday that a legal notice was sent a fortnight ago but he is not satisfied with the reply received from the makers of the film. Now, he is planning the next course of action. "We are consulting the legal advisers. We have not yet taken a final call," he stressed.

Sharpshooter Khan, who shot Avni aka T1 in Maharashtra's Yavatmal in 2018, is the son of well-known shooter Nawab Shafath Ali Khan. The tigress, identified as T1 is believed to be responsible for killing at least 13 humans over two years. She was shot dead in a village in Yavatmal district on November 2. Khan, who was assigned the job of capturing or killing the tigress, defended his action saying that his team had gone there at the invitation of the government and killed the alleged man-eater which had mauled many people in the remote village. The marksman also said he was seeking legal action against those making baseless allegations against them. The entire mission was projected as if the shooters were hunting for fun, he pointed out. Read Sherni review here.

The 63-year-old professional hunter, who has been instrumental in capturing tigers, elephants and other animals for the last four decades, had also argued that the movie could damage their reputation and add "fuel to the fire" to the sensitive matter which is already sub-judice. Further contending, that twisting the facts in the movie amounted to contempt of court. Avni's body was taken to a zoo in Nagpur for a post-mortem.

In reply to the notice served by the Hyderabad-based shooters, the filmmaker denied that the movie will hamper "any supposed ongoing investigation" or damage his reputation or his father's reputation as the work of fiction does not depict Khan or his father.

Read what we know so far about Vidya Balan’s character in Sherni here.

Feature Image Credit: Vidya Balan/Twitter