The 2018 experiments with politics
Rajinikanth
By partnering with filmmaker
Pa Ranjith for the second time in 2018’s Kaala, the superstar made a conscious effort to continue to speak the politics of the oppressed in his movies. But, Rajinikanth’s decision to follow it up with 2.0 and Petta, and the fact that he is yet to launch a party, fuelled doubts about his actual entry. Further, his off-screen utterances have been at variance with those of his on-screen
persona
Kamal Haasan
Kamal Haasan’s unexpected political foray, with his party Makkal Needhi Maiam, accrued some strength in 2018. After the long-delayed VIshwaroopam 2 which was released this year, the actor announced that he would be acting in sequels to his earlier films, Thevar Magan and Indian. Still, compared to Rajini, he’s a step ahead, having announced the name and flag of his party, undertaken tours of the state, and stated that the party would contest general elections
Vijay
What Vijay set out to do in Sarkar was interesting. By demonising the welfare schemes of the Dravidian parties as “freebies” handed out to lazy citizens, the actor seemed to suggest that if governments were run like corporate business houses, the people would not require such schemes in the first place. However, the actor’s politics, in 2018, continued to be driven by a reaction to current affairs than any serious ideology
Prolonged TFPC strike
The Tamil film industry came to a standstill in March as members of the fraternity, led by producers, called for a complete shutdown, indefinitely stalling all film-related work. The Tamil Film Producers’ Council (TFPC), led by its president actor-producer Vishal, made some ambitious demands, that it claimed would benefit the industry and audiences. But the genesis of the shutdown, was in the neighbouring Telugu states.
The Telugu film industry threatened to go on a strike from March 1 in protest against charges imposed by digital service providers (DSPs) like QUBE. TFPC announced it would follow suit. Soon, the Kannada and Malayalam industries also joined in. Several rounds of talks were held between representatives of the four film industries and the DSPs. After protesting for a day, both the Kerala and Kannada industries ended their strike, claiming that they would resolve the issue amicably. The DSPs, on their part, slashed their rates. The Telugu Film Chamber felt this was reasonable and decided to call off their strike on March 8.
However, the Tamil film industry claimed this an opportunity to protest against not one, but a range of issues, and effect an industry revamp of sorts. All of a sudden, the strike, which began as a standoff between producers and DSPs, transformed into a “movement”. The TFPC’s demands included flexible ticket pricing, computerised ticket-booking facilities, reduction in online booking charges, regularisation of film releases, and quashing of the Virtual Print Fee levied by DSPs. About 37 censored Tamil films were in the queue, awaiting their release after the strike, and 27 more films were on the shelves awaiting certification.
Daily-wage labourers operating in the industry were the worst affected. Finally, Minister Kadambur C Raja agreed to moderate a tripartite meeting on April 17, 2018 between producers, theatre-owners, and DSPs. After the meeting, Vishal announced the strike had been called off as most of their demands had been met.
Rewind 2018
Mysskin ‘ban’
The shooting of Mysskin’s upcoming film Pyscho, starring Udhayanidhi Stalin, was stalled by a recent verdict of the Madras High Court. The court, hearing a petition filed by financier Ragunandhan and his son Maitreya, issued an interim injunction against the filmmaker from directing or releasing any film with a storyline same as or similar to the one discussed with the duo.
According to the petitioners, Mysskin had signed an agreement with the two in 2015 that his next crime thriller, now titled Psycho, would star Maitreya in the lead. So when the director started the shoot of the film with Udhayanidhi Stalin, Aditi Rao Hydari and Nithya Menen a few months ago, the budding actor was apparently shocked. Maitreya also alleged that his father had paid Mysskin `1 crore for the project. The court, in addition to halting the release of Psycho also directed Mysskin to stand true to his agreement
#MeToo movement
The #MeToo movement made its presence felt in Kollywood in October when journalist Sandhya Menon posted an anonymous account about National Award-winning lyricist Vairamuthu’s alleged sexual misconduct. Popular singer and voice artist Chinmayi Sripraada then tweeted about several instances where the lyricist had allegedly misbehaved with women. She went on to narrate her own ordeal with him during an event in 2006, alleging she had been asked to stay with Vairamuthu in a hotel room.
Her accusations were met with silence from the industry, with the notable exception of a few such as actors Samantha and Siddharth, who supported the singer. Vairamuthu denied the allegations in a statement on Twitter but Chinmayi continued to post more accusations from other women. She also highlighted accusations of misconduct made by others against bigwigs in the Tamil music fraternity such OS Thyagarajan, Raghu Dixit, Mandolin U Rajesh and playback singer Karthik. Meanwhile, Kannada actor Sruthi Hariharan alleged that her Nibunan co-star Arjun Sarja had sexually harassed her on the sets of the Tamil film. Arjun was quick to refute her claims.
Actor Amala Paul spoke out in support of filmmaker Leena Manimekalai who accused director Susi Ganesan of sexually harassing her. In a statement, Amala said Susi Ganesan had behaved inappropriately with her too during the shoot of Thiruttu Payale 2, and she had no trouble believing Leena’s account. The director, called the allegations ‘disgusting lies’.
Photographer Pretika Menon accused actor-director Thiagarajan of sexual misconduct on the sets of the 2011 film, Ponnar Shankar. Thiagarajan subsequently organised a press meet to refute these allegations.
Actor Radha Ravi, whose name also came up in the movement, dismissed the allegations, claiming such incidents usually don’t happen without consent, and encouraging such accusers would only lead to blackmailing of VIPs in the future.
Big gap
During the strike, a staggering 950 theatres closed operations as Kollywood took a big break, with films like Kaala, Vishwaroopam 2, Irumbu Thirai and Tik Tik Tik waiting to see the light of day
Sarkar vs ‘Freebies’
Director AR Murugadoss’ Sarkar starring Vijay, had a smashing Diwali release, before running into trouble with the some members of the ruling AIADMK. The party and its cadre objected to scenes that criticised government schemes that provided free appliances to economically weaker sections and the naming of the antagonist played by Varalaxmi Sarathkumar as Komalavalli.
As demands rose for the deletion of the controversial scenes, protests by upset party cadre erupted across the state. Meanwhile, actor-turned-politician Kamal Haasan tweeted his support to the film. However, the theatre owners association, fearing footfall would suffer, were quick to announce that the contentious scenes would be deleted.
But, like any Tamil masala film-viewer could expect, the issue was far from over. Apprehending arrest in connection with the film, Murugadoss moved the court seeking anticipatory bail. Admitting his plea, the court, as an interim relief, restrained the police from arresting the director based on an FIR against him. The State government, in court, offered to drop the matter if the filmmaker would provide an undertaking stating he would not criticise the government’s policies in his future films, an offer Murugadoss declined.
Vishal’s detention
The TFPC office in T Nagar became a battleground on December 19 as a group of producers including AL Azhagappan, T Siva, Suresh Kamatchi, and SVe Sekhar, among others, locked the offices. Kathiresan, the honorary secretary, tried to act a peacemaker, but he did not have any answers to the questions raised by the opposition group. The opposition group listed a range of issues explaining their discontent against Vishal’s leadership and demanded he resign immediately. They wanted a response to their allegations and an announcement of elections.
The matter further escalated when Vishal was taken into police custody the next day after he tried to force entry into the council’s office. The actor was released after eight hours of what he called ‘illegal detention’. The offices were subsequently sealed. Subsequently, the Madras High Court ordered the council’s office to be unsealed and reprimanded the police for detaining Vishal without a proper reason. The court asked why an elected member of the council was prevented from entering his own office and ordered the council to submit all its account details to the Deputy Registrar
The plagiarism rows
Sarkar was not just controversial after being released. In late October, before its release, the film was embroiled in a plagiarism controversy when writer and assistant director Varun Rajendran alleged that director AR Murugadoss had made minor changes to his story titled Sengol to come up with Sarkar’s script.
With the South Indian Film Writers Association admitting that the script of Sarkar was not original, director Varun Rajendiran moved the Madras High Court. A compromise was finally reached between the two parties. Details later emerged that Murugadoss would display a message-note in which he would acknowledge that the theme of Sengol and Sarkar were the same, for 30 seconds after the end credits.
Murugadoss went on to post a video on social media announcing he would take sole credit for the story, screenplay, and direction of Sarkar. Also in late October, nearly a month after Prem Kumar’s 96 hit the screens, Suresh, an assistant director of Bharathiraja, alleged he had written a script called 92, which had many similarities to the Vijay Sethupathi and Trisha-starrer.
Suresh, who was allegedly hoping to film his script with Bharathiraja as the director, accused one Marudhupandian (a mutual friend of Suresh and Prem Kumar) of leaking the story. Prem Kumar, accompanied by a few young filmmakers, hosted a press conference in which he claimed he had registered the script of 96 in early 2016. He said he had also written a spin-off novel, based on what happens to the lead character after the film.