After several hurdles, finally Thalapathy Vijay’s mass masala entertainer Mersal hit the screens on Deepavali with great fanfare in Tamil Nadu and reportedly had a record opening in the city beating Kabali and Vivegam. But the same cannot be said for our neighbouring state — Karnataka — where the film had to face the wrath of the pro-Kannada activists.
The actor’s fans in Bengaluru were also celebrating Mersal’s release by erecting huge cutouts and banners outside the screens where the film hit the screens. This was said to be the main reason that led to the controversy.
According to Kannada Rakshana Vedike (KRV) activists, fans of Vijay allegedly beat a local person who was passing by the Radhakrishna theatre. The reason cited by them reportedly was that the guy stared at the cutouts — and Vijay’s fans took offence to that! This was brought to the notice of KRV activists who then decided to stop the film being screened at the said theatre.
Another video that went viral on Facebook shows theatres like Cauvery and Sampige at Malleswaram being vandalised by Kannada activists. They made sure that these theatres also did not screen the Tamil film.
However, though the pro-Kannada outfits demand a ban on Tamil movies, the protests seem to have not affected the screening of Mersal in other parts of Bengaluru.
It is not the first time that pro-Kannada organisations are staging protests against a Tamil film. More recently, SS Rajamouli’s Baahubali: The Conclusion faced similar problems from pro-Kannada groups for the remarks made by Sathyaraj over nine years ago. Even Vikram-Nayanthara starrer Iru Mugan was stalled during the bandh called by pro-Kannada outfits over the Cauvery water dispute.
Vijay hints at his political entry
The film also throws more light on Vijay’s political aspirations with Atlee fleshing out dialogues and scenes keeping the agenda in mind. Vijay has been credited for the first time as Thalapathy (Commander -in- chief) in the title scrolls, rather than Ilayathalapathy (young commander), a sobriquet which he was enjoying over many years.
Remove references to GST and ‘digital India’ from Mersal
TN State BJP president Tamilisai Soundararajan has said that the scenes related to GST and ‘Digital India’ in the film must be removed. She further went on to accuse actor Vijay of spreading false information because he wants to enter politics.
“I haven’t seen the movie, but those who saw the movie say there were factual errors in what he said. Due to his political ambitions, Vijay is spreading wrong information,” Tamilisai said.
