CHENNAI: DMDK leader and actor Vijayakant is planning to take up the Tamil plank just before the 2016 Assembly elections with a new film Thamizhan Endru Sol, stressing on his Tamil identity.
The actor, who named his elder son after LTTE leader Prabhakaran a decade before he launched a political party, is facing attacks from outfits like the Naam Thamizhar movement, which is running a campaign against him saying that he is not a son of the soil and that he has Telugu roots. The film to be released just before elections will serve as election propaganda for Vijayakant.
It will have scenes depicting the current political situation and punch dialogues with political overtones. During his career in the film industry, Vijayakant identified himself with Tamil nationalist politics and the slogan for his fan club was chosen from the poems of ‘Namakkal’ Ramalingam Pillai. The slogan - Thamizhan Endru Sollada; Thalai Nimirndhu Nillada asks people to take pride in being a Tamilian and openly declare Tamil identity. He named his 100th movie and his elder son after LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran and gave cash awards for poems published in Tamil weeklies in favour of LTTE’s struggle for a separate homeland.
Even during the height of the Lankan military offensive in 2009, Vijayakant did not join the agitations for stopping the offensive.
When Tamil nationalist outfits and parties like the MDMK were fiercely opposing the Congress in the 2009 Parliament elections, the actor was open to alliance with the Grand Old Party.
At present, Vijayakant is under attack from the Naam Thamizhar Movement, an outfit formed by director Seeman, which argues that non-Tamils should not be allowed to rule Tamil Nadu. Seeman’s outfit is claiming that Vijayakant has Telugu roots. It contends that thousands of Telugu people settled in Tamil Nadu during the Nayak rule, an extension of Vijayanagar empire and the actor is one of them.
The film Thamizhan Endru Sol is expected to answer the criticism and stress on Vijayakant’s Tamil identity and passion for Tamil. AIADMK founder MGR faced similar attacks and used to counter them with songs and dialogue in his movies.
One of the songs Naan Ungal Veettu Pillai and his powerful dialogue explaining his love for Tamil soil in the climax scene of film Urimai Kural is still remembered by his followers.