Film Industry 'Sucking the Blood of Movie-Goers', Says CM Palanisamy After Forcing Cuts in Vijay's 'Sarkar'

Coimbatore (Tamil Nadu): Amid the row over controversial scenes in Vijay-starrer Sarkar, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami has lashed out at the film industry over ticket prices.

A report in IANS quoted the CM as saying that Kollywood is "sucking the movie-goers' blood by selling Rs 100 ticket at Rs 1,000" in initial days after the movie's release.

Refuting the allegation that AIADMK cadre tore the banners of the movie, Palaniswami said that since the general public also opposed some of the scenes in the movie, the producer and the director agreed to remove those scenes.

Palaniswami said any self-respecting cadre belonging to any party will be angry if the welfare schemes brought by their leaders are belittled.

Vijay's Deepavali flick 'Sarkar' kicked up a row with the ruling AIADMK objecting to scenes that showed freebies being thrown into the fire. Also, the ruling party had objected to a woman character's name, which, it said, was a purported reference to the late chief minister J Jayalalithaa.

The issue heated up after supporters of the ruling party allegedly tore up banners of 'Sarkar' and began targeting movie halls that screened the movie. Eventually, the movie-makers offered a truce and went in for voluntary cuts of the freebies-trashing scene and muted an objectionable name.

Following the makers’ decision to cut controversial scenes, Vijay's fans recreated the snipped scene, throwing away freebies, including table fans, of the AIADMK government and setting them ablaze.

Some youth, claiming to be Vijay's supporters, uploaded videos on social media of them dumping the fan, ‘mixie’ and grinder in open spaces and pits and setting them ablaze. By doing so, they recreated a scene from 'Sarkar' which was voluntarily cut by the movie-makers following objection from the AIADMK.

The 'fans' also spoke in support of their matinee idol's movie and lashed out at the ruling AIADMK for their objection.

Sarkar had earlier courted a row after an aspiring filmmaker claimed that the film's story was his, following which director Murugadoss went in for a compromise with him.

Produced by Sun Pictures, the film stars Vijay and Keerthi Suresh in key roles with Oscar winner AR Rahman scoring the music.

Vijay's 2017 film Mersal too had courted controversy after BJP objected to some scenes critical of GST, among others.