Mersal row: Vijay breaks silence, thanks those who lent support

Mersal struck gold at the box office even as it has stirred a national debate on several fronts. The BJP leaders in Tamil Nadu opposed to certain dialogues mouthed by Vijay, which they said has shown the Modi government’s pet projects like GST and Digital India in poor light.

BJP senior leader H Raja painted a communal angle to the entire controversy by raking up Vijay’s Christian roots. To simply put, Raja alleged that Vijay is a Christian and hence he disliked PM Modi. He also took exception to a scene, where Vijay’s character in the film suggests of building temples instead of hospitals. The scene was completely drawn out of context and even a complaint against the actor was filed for allegedly hurting religious sentiments.

#Thalapathi #Vijay, thanks all for the stupendous success of #Mersal pic.twitter.com/F6a6ljUfso

— Sreedhar Pillai (@sri50) October 25, 2017

The BJP came under fire from all quarters as it was accused of trying to silence the dissenting voices. From national to regional political parties in Tamil Nadu, all joined hands in lashing out at the BJP. Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi also ridiculed the Modi government over the controversy. “Mr. Modi, Cinema is a deep expression of Tamil culture and language. Don’t try to demon-etise Tamil pride by interfering in Mersal,” he tweeted.

The members of Tamil film fraternity, including Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan appreciated Mersal and spoke against re-censoring the film due to political pressure.