ALAPPUZHA: Actor Fahadh Faasil has courted a controversy following the dangerous manoeuvres he performed on an elephant at an unidentified location, and an animal rights activist has demanded his arrest.
A 21-second video of his daring act appeared on Facebook on Monday night, in which he is seen swinging on the elephant’s trunk and holding the tusk while a photographer is busy taking snaps without any safety measures. The video uploaded on the Facebook page of a film promotion business site Metromatinee.com has been shared by a thousand Facebookians and seen by about one lakh netizens.
The visuals, apparently shot by a mobile phone, show the actor being moved up and down four to five times by the tusker. He looks awkward in an embarrassing position between the animal’s trunk and tusk.
There are three persons, including the photographer and the mahout, in the scene. At a point the actor loses control and the elephant keeps shaking its head impatiently. It is unclear whether it was a cinematic or a private shoot, but the surrounding look like a forest. The video post is named Fahadinu Fazhilinte Dhairyam (Fahad got Fazil’s courage).
Mr M.N. Jayachandran, member, State Animal Welfare Board (SAWB), said “he must be arrested immediately and subjected to contempt of court as per the ruling given by the Supreme Court. If somebody dies after imitating such acts, would the actor be held accountable?
So, this violation of the rule must be treated seriously,” he said. Mr V.K. Venkitachalam, secretary, Thrissur- based Heritage Animal Task Force said, “using the tuskers to lift a person is prohibited by the Prevention of cruelty to Animals Act 1960.
It is doubtful whether the owner of the elephant in the picture has either the ownership certificate as per the Declaration of Wildlife Stock Rules 2003 or the certification and permission from the office of the Animal Welfare Board of India as per the Performing Animals (Registration) Rule 2001,” he said.
The apex court, in a ruling on May 13, had banned the torture and use of elephants for entertainment purposes and asked the state and central governments to take stringent action against law-breakers. The actor was not available for comments.
