5 time National award winning filmmaker Vetrimaaran recently took a dig at his 6 time National Award winning colleague, Padma Shri Mani Ratnam. Mani Ratnam's latest release Ponniyin Selvan: Part One aka PS-I is based on a famous Tamil literary novel, that fictionalizes the real life story of reverred Tamil King Raja Raja Chola. Common history knowledge is that Raja Raja Chola and his family were staunch Shiva devotees (aka the Shaivites), and the king who was also known as Arunmozhi Varman or Ponniyin Selvan, built one of the most significant Hindu temples in India. 

However post PS1's release, Vetrimaaran while speaking at an event said, "Continuously, our symbols are being snatched from us. Saffronising Valluvar or calling Raja Raja Cholan a Hindu king is constantly occurring.” The director also added that cinema being a commoner’s medium, it was 'important to understand politics' and 'protect one’s representation'.

Vetrimaaran's statement threw off a lot of people in the Hindu-majority India because common knowledge also is that 'Hinduism' as a unified religion traces back to the 8th century, when a Chera [modern day Kerala] philosopher named Adi Shankara proposed to bring all individual-worshipping sects under the same umbrella [then divided as Sun-worshippers, Shiva Worshipping Brahmins, Vishnu worshipping Brahmins, the non-brahmins, Buddhists, Jains, etc].

Tamil King Raja Raja Chola was immediately after this era and though a single Hindu religion wasn't prevalent at that time, he would most certainly be considered a 'Hindu' King historically. This was echoed by Tamil Nadu BJP leader H. Raja who sarcastically rebutted Vetrimaaran's statement with,

"It will be enough if he (Vetrimaaran) can point out where two Church and two mosques built by Raja Raja Cholan are. Raja Raja Cholan called himself a Siva Paatha Sekaran [meaning  the one who wears the feet of Lord shiva on his head]. Is he (the King) not Hindu?"

 

Kamal Haasan, who is Mani Ratnam's uncle-in-law recently attended a Ponniyin Selvan screening and was asked by the press about Vetrimaaran's statement. The actor while pointing out Adi Shankarar's unified religion history, tried to diffuse the situation by stating,

“There was no name called ‘Hindu religion’ during Raja Raja Cholan’s period. There was Vainavam, Shaivam and Samanam, and it was the Britishers who coined the term ‘Hindu’ since they didn’t know how to refer to it collectively. It is similar to how they changed Thuthukudi into Tuticorin...This is the moment to celebrate...Let’s not exaggerate or twist history or bring language issues into this,”