Protests in Tamil Nadu over portrayal of Muslims in teaser of Sivakarthikeyan film ‘Amaran’

On Wednesday, TMJK members raised slogans against Sivakarthikeyan and Kamal Haasan and urged the police to invoke the Goondas Act against the two actors. (Photo credit: KMS Tmjk-Media/Facebook)

The teaser of the Sivakarthikeyan-starrer Amaran, bankrolled by actor Kamal Haasan’s Raaj Kamal Films International and Sony Pictures Films India, was released a few days ago. Directed by Rajkumar Periasamy, the film will see Sivakarthikeyan portraying the role of Major Mukund Varadarajan and also features Sai Pallavi, Bhuvan Arora and Rahul Bose, among others.

Major Varadarajan of the 44th Battalion of the Rashtriya Rifles (22 Rajput) was awarded the Ashoka Chakra, the nation’s highest peacetime gallantry award, posthumously. He was leading an anti-terrorist operation in a village in Jammu and Kashmir’s Shopian in April 2014 when he lost his life.

On Wednesday, TMJK members raised slogans against Sivakarthikeyan and Kamal Haasan, urged the police to invoke the Goondas Act against the two actors, and tried to burn effigies of the actors. The police took measures to disperse the gathering and later detained some of the members to bring the situation under control.

“The teaser of the film has scenes portraying the Muslims and the people of Kashmir as terrorists. The government of Tamil Nadu should immediately intervene and ban the film,” Rayal Siddique, Tiruchirapalli district secretary of the TMJK, told reporters in Palakarai. The Tamil film industry, he alleged, continues to portray Muslims who have been living in harmony with people of all religions in the state in a bad light.