Chennai/ Madurai: The Tamil film Mersal continues to be in the spotlight beyond the theatres in which it is running since its Deepavali release. On an eventful Monday, rumours were afoot that actor Vishal was raided by GST intelligence officials, which was later denied. It later turned out that officials from the Income-Tax (TSD) wing did call on the actor’s movie office. Vishal, who is also secretary of the Nadigar Sangam, addressed the media to say that what was happening was not significant and that he was capable of facing any probes.
A lawyer from Madurai in his complaint claimed that the dialogues Vijay speaks in the movie were against Indian sovereignty because it affects the religious sentiments of Hindus. A dialogue which states more hospitals need to constructed instead of temple was nothing but targeting a particular religion, he said.
A petition was filed in Madras high court for a direction to revoke the censor certificate of the film. The petitioner, advocate A. Ashvathaman, alleged thatthe film was full of “wrong propaganda about India and fake dialogues and scenes which obviously leads to misconception about the new taxation system of India and the Goods and Service Tax Act, 2017 to the viewers”.
The BJP leader H. Raja, under fire over his remarks on the film’s GST and Digital India monologues, was given police protection. That did not stop him from stoking further controversy by saying Mersal film hero Vijay is a Christian and hence the reason for the criticism of GST in his film. Posting a photo of actor Vijay’s voter’s ID and official letterhead, on his Twitter account, Mr. Raja indicated that the popular star is a Christian and his full name is C. Vijay Joseph. This, the BJP senior asserted, is the reason for dialogues critical of GST, introduced by the BJP government at the Centre in July this year.
“Truth is bitter,” Mr. Raja had also tweeted while posting the couple of photos on Vijay. “Vijay (in the film) says that we should build hospitals instead of temples. Will he say the same about churches, too? Why are only temples being referred to? It’s like provoking Hindus”, he said, refusing to take into account that Vijay’s character in the film is a Hindu and that’s why his director-scriptwriter might have mentioned temples and not churches. The BJP leader even saw a Kollywood conspiracy against Hindus.
“This is just silly”, said director-producer S. A. Chandrasekar, reacting to the attack on his son Vijay having a Christian name. Even as the issue boiled over, BJP’s TN President was involved in a fracas with VCK chief Thirumavalavan , leading to police protection being strengthened for her too.
