Sarkar: Angered by cuts in the film, Vijay fans destroy freebies from the state government

Video clips of Tamil actor Vijay's fans recreating a snipped scene from his controversial movie 'Sarkar', throwing away freebies, including table fans, of the AIADMK government and setting them ablaze, went viral on social media on Saturday. Some youth, claiming to be Vijay's supporters, uploaded on social media videos of them dumping the fan, mixie, and grinder in open spaces and pits and setting them ablaze.

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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. 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 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. The AIADMK has, however, denied the allegation that their party workers tore 'Sarkar' banners. Supporters of Dravidian ideology actively opposed 'demonisation' of freebies in the social media since these were intended to help the marginalised people. Notably, the main opposition party DMK, which has been targeting the AIADMK government on all issues, refrained from commenting on the row that involved the movie-makers, Vijay's fans, and the ruling party.

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On Thursday, the AIADMK was up in arms against 'Sarkar' with sen ior state ministers demanding deletion of the contentious scenes, besides threatening to initiate legal action if the film crew failed to comply. Law Minister C Ve Shanmugham had said certain scenes amounted to inciting violence and warned of 'action'. The AIADMK took strong exception to scenes showing mixer-grinders and fans being burnt, seen as an obvious affront to its flagship scheme of providing these goods free of cost to the people, fulfilling an electoral promise made by Jayalalithaa in 2011.

'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 A R Rahman scoring the music. Vijay's 2017 film 'Mersal' too had courted controversy after BJP objected to some scenes critical of GST, among others.