Thalaivaa Controversy - Another Dark day for Tamil Cinema

It is a dark day for Tamil Cinema that yet another highly anticipated movie has been caught in the web of controversies. The reasons for Thalaivaa's delay appears to be lot more deep rooted than what meets the eyes. We will present the data points without passing any judgement and leave it up to the readers to connect the dots,

The modus operandi has been similar to Vishwaroopam with such law and order concerns cropping up during the last 48 hours prior to release, specifically after shipping out the physical prints to overseas and domestic centers in India. The entertainment tax waiver has not been given despite Thalaivaa getting a "U" certificate. Similar to Vishwaroopam, it is believed that the camera prints (a.k.a. thiruttu dvds) are expected to flood the internet and local VCD/DVD markets immediately after the first show.

Possible Target #1 - Producers of Vendhar Movies 

The bomb threats have reportedly come from "Oppressed Students Revolutionary Union" whose letters claimed that Vendhar Movies, one of the producers of the film, had cheated students of Tamil Nadu and other states of money (80% of its over 30,000 students are from outside TN) and has been siphoning their money into movie business. 

Vendhar movies is owned by Madhan, one of the business heads of education barron, Paari Vendhan (alias TR Pachamuthu). Paari Vendhan runs SRM University and has diversified successfully beyond education and into energy , construction, hotel, transportation, media and movies. This emerging group also runs TV network "Pudhiya Thalaimurai" and another English news channel on the cards.

After 3 decades of unhindered ride from rags to riches, 2013 has been a problem year for this business empire with tax men conducting raids during June of this year alleging tax evasion and diversion of funds from the education trust to other businesses. There had been a number of charges regarding collection of exorbitant capitation fees from students. On a side note, Pachamuthu had also recently founded the Indiya Jananayaka Katchi (IJK party).

 Possible Target #2 - Ilayathalapathy Vijay 

Vijay is no stranger to controversies. Vijay has been involved in a number of controversies during the last year. Vijay's previous release, Thuppakki, came under attack from Muslim organizations asking for removal of objectionable scenes. Even though the makers of Thuppakki promised to remove the suggested scenes/sounds, the organizations were not happy that the changes were not consistently executed at all centers and were upset that the makers didn't follow through on their promise. Vijay appeased these organizations by saying that he will act as a Muslim in his upcoming movie (Jilla).

Another incident that happened this year was cancellation of Vijay's birthday party on June 8th as the organizers were denied permission quoting security concerns. The grand function was planning for Vijay to disburse 1 Crore worth of charity goodies to poor people and a number of charity events organized by Vijay Makkal Iyakkam. This had upset Vijay and was considered a dampener on his political ambitions which Vijay has been openly nurturing for sometime now.

Victim - You!

It is not clear whether these problems are targeted at the producer and/or Vijay. But, the victim is You. A familiar battle was fought not too long ago for Vishwaroopam as people all over India stood up in unison and helped Kamal Haasan emerge from bankruptcy and made Vishwaroopam one of the biggest grossers in Tamil Cinema.  The success of Vishwaroopam's struggle lay in the fact that the public considered it as an assault on their freedom of expression and took it as his/her own personal issue.

What can Individuals do?

It is too early to say whether media, fans and general public will unite and help 'Thalaivaa' tide over all these challenges. One simple thing that every single person should be able to do as a responsible citizen of the nation is to set aside their individual differences and their passionate affiliations to their favourite stars and stand up and say a firm "No" to buying or watching piracy prints of Thalaivaa. 

It is Time to Lead... Again!