TAMIL FILM SARKAR BOWS TO PRESSURE FROM JAYA FANS, OPTS FOR CUTS

CHENNAI: The controversy over actor Vijay’s Tamil film ‘Sarkar’ blew over Friday with its producers cutting scenes, including an apparent reference to late chief minister J Jayalalithaa and welfare schemes initiated by her, the move coming a day after the movie faced a backlash from AIADMK over the ‘objectionable’ scenes.

State information and publicity minister Kadambur C Raju welcomed the cuts in the movie saying the “issue has come to an end” and AIADMK would not stage any more protests against it.

Though the film industry had rallied behind Sarkar, with actors Kamal Hassan and Rajinikant, as well as Vishal, president of South Indian Film Artistes’ Association, questioning the AIADMK’S protests, the makers of the film agreed to accede to the ruling party’s demands so that the film’s screening wasn’t disturbed any further.

Sun Pictures of Kalanithi Maran, the producer of the movie, maintained that they have acceded to the request of distributors and theatre owners to make the changes.

According to Tamil film industry sources, the cuts effected were ‘voluntary’ with the approval of the Central Board of Film Certification. “While we don’t know how many scenes have been deleted, we can say for sure that the objectionable scene on mixer and grinder being burnt has been removed,” they said.

Also, the audio part mentioning the name Komalavalli, deemed to be a reference to Jayalalithaa, will be ‘muted,’ they said.

Tamil Nadu Multiplex Owners Association president Abiramai Ramanathan said, “The producer had agreed to concede our demands and things have been settled amicably. Now, the screening of the movie will resume without any hitches.”

In a related legal development, the Madras high court on Friday restrained the police from arresting the film’s director A R Murugadoss till November 27.