Students create ruckus at film’s audio release

The film, produced by Vendhar Movies of BJP ally and IJK president Paari Vendhar, is reportedly based on some real-life incidents involving the capture and killing of Balachandran.

A few Tamil outfits had launched bitter criticism of the film ever since its trailer was released a few days ago. They are angry that the 12-year-old son of the LTTE chief has been shown wearing a Tiger uniform and this can be interpreted as showing that the LTTE had child soldiers.

The student-protesters in Satyam questioned the motive behind showing Balachandran in an LTTE uniform and expressed the fear that such visuals could come in handy for pro-Colombo elements to counter the international campaign against the Rajapaksa regime for alleged war crimes.

Apart from Paari Vendhar and the film’s director Pravin Gandhi, Union minister of state Pon Radhakrishnan and Naam Thamizar coordinator Seeman were among the guests for the audio release function.While the protesters alleged that “some goons”of political parties had assaulted them, the police denied this. “We merely questioned them about some scenes in the movie that are far from the truth. They got their goons to hit us and, eventually, we were thrown out of the theatre,” said student leader Prabhakaran.

Director Pravin Gandhi tried to play down the incident as a minor misunderstanding. “We tried to explain to them that their questions would be answered at the end of the function but they continued causing trouble. We had to call the police to restore order,” he said, terming the protesters' conduct as “immature and attention-seeking”.