Coimbatore: Vijay-starrer Sarkar, under fierce attack from the AIADMK and its government for showing the late leader Jayalalithaa and her populist freebies in poor light, is likely to have a couple of cuts from Friday matinee shows.
The TN exhibitors association president M Subramaniam told reporters at Tiruppur that he got the assurance from the film's producers that they would carry out two cuts demanded by the AIADMK leaders after getting the clearance from the Censors on Friday morning and release the modified version from the matinee show.
While the producers, Sun Pictures, made no statement on this (till going to press), exhibitors' association chief Subramaniam said the theatre-owners “would never do anything to create social tensions” and rub the government on the wrong side.
As the film cannot undergo any changes without clearance from the Censors, its makers would submit the required application at the Censor office in Chennai on Friday morning and the film with its two cuts would resume screening from the day’s matinee shows, he told reporters.
It is understood that the scene showing the burning of freebies could be deleted to satisfy the angry AIADMK members, besides “muting” the name “Komalavalli” used for the woman antagonist in the film.
It is said that Komalavalli is Jayalalithaa's original name but this has been denied by AMMK leader TTV Dhinakaran.
He said at no point of time had Jayalalithaa used Komalavalli as her name.
While Sarkar has become a huge hit and is busy breaking box-office records since its Deepavali release on Tuesday, it ended up angering the ruling AIADMK, whose members tore up the posters and burnt Vijay effigies in many parts of the state. Ministers slammed the film and its hero, with D Jayakumar declaring Vijay would never realise his dream of becoming another MGR and adorn the CM’s seat.
On a more serious note, law minister C V Shanmugam threatened legal action as some scenes like the burning of government properties (freebies) amounted to extremism as they incited violence. He also held discussions on this with state advocate general Vijay Narayan.
With the AIADMK members holding demonstrations, several theatres cancelled the night shows of Sarkar and told the fans that the shows would resume after peace returns, possibly by the matinee time on Friday.
