The Tamil film soil in recent times has faced a wave of negative energy, and the public relations aka PR aspect of it seems like the one to blame for one snafu after another. Celebrities like AR Rahman, Jyotika, Nayanthara, producer SR Prabhu, and music composer Devi Sri Prasad have unwittingly contributed to Kollywood's recent PR disasters, and a gist of the same below:

1. Nayanthara - Dhanush IP Controversy

Two days before the release of Nayanthara: Beyond The Fairytale, which is a part-scripted 1 hour 23 minute documentary on Netflix, Nayanthara dragged actor, producer Dhanush for demanding legal damages over Nayanthara's use of Dhanush owned Intellectual Property (IP), aka Naanum Rowdy Dhaan movie's behind-the-scenes footages. 

Nayanthara's attack on Dhanush was seen as a PR stunt by many, while she and husband Vignesh Shivan maintained that it was in retaliation to years of 'personal vendetta' by Dhanush. Nayanthara even released the list of 25 major production banners from Tamil, Telugu and Hindi film industry which let her use their respective IP for free, to highlighlight the contrast between them and Dhanush's Wunderbar Films, which demanded Rs. 10 Cr. from her. But little is known if any of this noise helped in the OTT viewership of her documentary. 

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More Context: Nayanthara in the past has done a cameo appearance for Wunderbar Films, for free. The actress wanted the Naanum Rowdy Dhaan movie footage included in her documentary, because her relationship with Vignesh Shivan started on that film set. Dhanush, soured by the losses incurred from Naanum Rowdy Dhaan is said to have refused the couple, the film's footages. Nayanthara and Vignesh Sivan nay-sayers opined that if they wanted something for free, then they should also have released Nayanthara: Beyond The Fairytale for free on Netflix. 

2. Jyotika - Kanguva Controversy

After the Suriya starrer Kanguva opened to hugely negative reviews, Suriya's actress wife Jyotika took to her Instagram page to pen a long note about questionable film reviews, propaganda against her husband's film, and how the current trade code of overtly highlighting negatives over positives isn't helping save cinema. Jyotika did this all the while acknowledging that Kanguva's first 30 minutes 'doesn't work', and accepting that the sound in the film is 'jarring'.

However to say that Jyotika's Instagram note backfired even more for Kanguva, and the actress herself would be an understatement. The general audience which has little insight of how the film trade works, interpreted Jyotika's note as a biased comment in favour of her husband Suriya.

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They particularly took issue with her wording 'cinema fan' and raised questions on why she had not spoken up for movies like Indian 2, which had also opened to negative reviews from critics, or Vettaiyan which was a victim of social media propaganda despite being a good content film, this year. 

3. AR Rahman - Hashtag Controversy

Music composer AR Rahman probably shocked the country when he announced separation from Saira Banu, his wife of 29 years, and the mother of his three adult children. The PR disaster however was not the divorce in itself, but the hashtag that accompanied the divorce announcement.

Indian twitter couldn't digest or let go that such a grim update was accompanied by a hashtag in the first place, much less one as trivializing as '#arrsairaabreakup'. For context, AR Rahman and Saira Banu are a legally married couple who are currently separated, and have filed for divorce. Their separation is much more than a 'breakup' of two romantically linked individuals. 

4. SR Prabhu - Vijay Fans Controversy

Producer SR Prabhu of Dream Warrior Pictures, and Potential Studios is a known name in the Tamil film industry. He also has a reputation of 'giving back' on X, when users go out of the way to tag him and look for trouble. SR Prabhu's beefs are mostly with fans of actor Vijay, and recently the producer found himself being dragged again by one.

என்னடா தம்பி ஒரு அடி திருப்பி அடிச்சதுக்கே 5 வருசமா கதறிகிட்டு இருக்கீங்க. மக்கள் பணி நிறைய இருக்கு, போய் அண்ணணுக்கு துணையா அடுத்த வேலைய பாருங்கடா! நல்ல மனுசன், அவரு பேர கெடுத்துட்டு தரியாதீங்க!!

— SR Prabu (@prabhu_sr) November 21, 2024

When the active Tamil Film Producers Council called for theater owners to not let YouTubers inside their premises anymore, a Vijay fan tagged SR Prabhu to state that TFPC was making this move only because SR Prabhu was the Vice President, and that his cousin Suriya's film Kanguva was a victim of negative reviews.

SR Prabhu was in no mood to let this go, and schooled the Vijay fans club user with a following of 7K+, and asked him to not spoil actor, politician Vijay's name with such tweets. SR Prabhu as usual got ganged up by Vijay fans, and the fan-mob started taking it out on movies SR Prabhu was associated with, even as a distributor.

pic.twitter.com/0A3SLooZyi

— Amuthabharathi Videos (@Videos345) November 23, 2024

However it made no difference to the producer's stance or take.    

5. Devi Sri Prasad - Background Score Controversy

Kanguva had music and background score by Devi Sri Prasad but surprisingly is not the reason for controversy surrounding the music composer. Two of Devi Sri Prasad's films, Pushpa 2: The Rule (Telugu) and Good Bad Ugly (Tamil) are produced by Mythri Movie Makers. 

The background score of Allu Arjun's Pushpa 2 and the Ajith starrer Good Bad Ugly are however handled by different music producers. Devi Sri Prasad recently used the stage of a Pushpa 2 event in Chennai to reveal that Mythri Movie Makers complain of the time he takes to complete the background score of a film. 

While Devi Sri Prasad's statement was made with respect to the issues he had with the Pushpa 2 makers, many unwittingly interpreted Devi Sri Prasad as the reason for Good Bad Ugly's postponement. The music director using the Pushpa 2 stage to air internal grievances was also not seen as a welcome move by Telugu film fans.

Moreover Devi Sri Prasad making this statement in Telugu, while promoting the movie in Chennai brought all the language fanatics to the fore [DSP made his speech in Tamil and only a part of it was in Telugu, as opposed to Tamil film actors who resort to Tamil/English while promoting their movies in Telugu states].