Taken aback by the anger and anguish of the fans of Ranjikanth, the Tamil superstar, who has been portrayed as a buffoon in the movie Comali ( Tamil for Joker) , the producers have decided to remove the offensive portions from the film to be released shortly. The movie’s teaser which was released last Saturday had earned the wrath of the fans of the superstar who had announced his political ambitions during his interactions with them late 2017.
The movie has a scene in which the protagonist played by Jayam Ravi, an actor known for his Dravidian leanings, lampooning Rajinikanth by announcing his political dreams and going into a coma. What has upset the fans is the discrimination shown against Rajinikanth by regional political outfits , which had accorded support to other stars who not command the same kind of popularity enjoyed by the former.
In a release on Tuesday, actor Jayam Ravi said there was no deliberate attempt or intent to mock Rajnikanth. “We all grew up watching his movies. His action and style had mandatorily become an inherent part of our nature and there is no way that we would show disrespect to him in any way ,” said Ravi in the release.
By Sunday morning the trending in the social media #BoycottComali found unprecedented success among film goers who asked for the deletion of the offensive scenes. It is said that the movie makers got wind of the hurt sentiments of the superstar and decided to play it safe. Tamil movies, from the days of M G Ramachandran and Sivaji Ganesan has always portrayed the heroes as the embodiment of all that is good. No movie makers of that era have dared to make a movie in which the hero dies or gets defeated. The climax of the 1972 movie Vasantha Maalikai (Palace of Spring) starring Sivaji Ganesan had to be shot again as the fans of the hero could not stand the scene in which he dies.