No GST dialogue in Telugu Mersal

Hyderabad: Adirindhi, the Telugu version of Tamil movie Mersal, may not be  released this Friday, following the GST controversy kicked up by the movie’s dialogue, which attracted the wrath of the ruling party.

So much was the commotion, criticism and comments by some political leaders from Tamil Nadu that Mersal went viral on social media. 

Adirindhi was scheduled to release on Friday, but the release was postponed due to non-issuance of a censor certificate. The new release date will be announced later, tweeted the movie team on Thursday. The movie has not received a censor certificate even after deleting the ‘objectionable’ GST dialogue from the Telugu version. 

Matters went to such an extent that even actor Vijay’s Aadhaar card was circulated to prove that he is a Christian and that was probably why he was speaking against the ruling party. Krishna Sagar Rao, Telangana BJP official spokesperson said, “The BJP stand is very clear. Our government has no issues with what actor Vijay says or what the producer is trying to do or why are they making non-factual remarks. If at all we were to go against the freedom of expression, the censor board wouldn’t have released it nation-wide. Mr Vijay himself has said that the movie was released without any cuts or without any changes, which clearly shows that the BJP has nothing to do with the non-release.’’

He adds, “What we are trying to do is to use the same constitutional rights to express our views about the producer, actor and the movie, which we feel have deliberately put in a few dialogues against demonetization and GST. The film may be a creative product but it is misrepresenting the facts. So we are protesting against it because we are concerned’’.

“The Telangana BJP has not asked for a review or a relook at the censor certificate of the Telugu version. Some leaders from Tamil Nadu may have asked for it but the party has not asked for any local certification. But the Telangana BJP unit is strongly condemning the attitude of the producer and the hero. They haven’t removed the offending lines in the Tamil movie, even though we the movie is misinterpreting the facts. We have just expressed our views verbally. Telangana BJP doesn’t have any idea about the Telugu version not getting a regional censor certificate’’, Mr Rao concluded.