DINDIGUL: Manithar unarndhukolla ithu manitha kaadhal alla. Athaiyum thaandi punithamanathu.
The cheers inside the cinemas screening ‘Manjummel Boys’ seem to have spilled on to the hearts of the people, as they are making a beeline for the Guna Caves in Kodaikanal. It’s off-season, but the success of the Malayalam flick has helped the caves, also known as Devil’s Kitchen, see tens of hundreds of visitors, recording as many as 40,000 footfalls in a week.
M Ajith, a tourist visiting Kodaikanal for the first time, said he was longing to visit the caves after watching the movie.
Speaking to TNIE, the forest department’s Integrated Development Range (Kodaikanal Division) Officer R Senthil said after the film’s success, the number of tourists in Kodaikanal increased rapidly. “Even though this is off-season, there has been an increase in the number of tourists. In February alone, over 1 lakh tourists visited Kodaikanal and ‘Guna Caves’. The film’s success is indirectly increasing the revenue of the district administration, the forest department and the locals.”
Meanwhile, the sudden rush at the Guna cave is giving the forest department a hard time. On Monday, the officials arrested three youth - S Vijay(24) and P Bharat(24) from Krishnagiri and P Ranjithkumar(24) from Ranipet - for trespassing into the restricted area.