The entire Kollywood industry — Nadigar Sangam, Tamil Film Producers Council, Directors Association, FEFSI represented by its heads including Nasser, Vishal, Selvamani and Vikraman — met governor Banwarilal Purohit on Wednesday. They submitted a memorandum, which comprised 5,000 signatures of several actors and technicians from the industry to form the Cauvery Management Board and to take a speedy decision on the closure of the Sterlite factory.
The film industry had been in the forefront of the agitation for the CMB formation and in fact played a role in getting the IPL shifted out of Chennai. Addressing the press, actor Nasser said that governor has assured that the CMB will be formed in 2 weeks time. “The Cauvery water issue has been there for several decades. Based on what we presented to the Governor, he said he would send a note to the Chief Minister. He was confident that Tamil Nadu would get a positive reply on the constitution of CMB in two weeks time. Even, he promised that the problems related to closure of Sterlite factory would also be looked into.”
Initially, the deadline for the formation of the Cauvery Management Board formation was March 29. Later, the Supreme Court ordered the Centre to present its draft on the management board by May 3.
One may recall a ‘Silent Protest’ held a couple of weeks ago by film fraternity where the who’s who of the industry, including Rajinikanth, Kamal Haasan, Vijay, Suriya, Karthik, Vishal, Vikram , Sivakarthikeyan, Sivakumar, Dhanush, Sathyaraj, Parthiban, Vijay Sethupathi and many technicians demanding that the Centre set up the CMB and the Cauvery Water Regulation Committee (CWRC) and shut down the Sterlite factory in Thoothukudi.
