28.3.2008
By Walter Jayawardhana

The Sri Lankan Director of the new film ,’Prabhakaran’ has been physically assaulted at Chennai’s Gemini Studios as the attackers thought Sri Lanka’s Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) leader Velupillai Prabhakaran has been very poorly depicted in the film.

The film Director Thushara Peiris was attacked at the Gemini Studios Chennai where he went to collect the copies of his film where it was printed, eyewitnesses said.

The Times of India newspaper identified the attackers as S.P. Veerapandian, who happened to be the General Secretary of the ultra nationalist Dravida Iyakka Tamilar Peravai, S. Vanniyarasu Viduthalai Chirunthaikal and film director Seeman.

The film’ Prabhakaran’ shows the miseries of the people due to the conflict between the separatist and government forces, through the eyes of an escaped LTTE cadre.

Meanwhile other newspapers in India reported that Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (Dalit Panthers of India), an ally of the Tamil Nadu’s ruling DMK threatened to burn the film rolls if it shows Prabhakaran in a bad light.

When the ultra nationalist party members were gathering in front of the Gemini Color Studios where the prints of the Sinhalese film were taken the director Peiris went out of the studios to explain matters to the demonstrators, eye witnesses said. The mob then said that unless the film is Okayed by the extremist leaders, Thol Thirumalavan of the Dalit Panthers of India and Dr. Ramadoss of the Pattali Makkalai Katchi, no prints of it would be allowed to be printed in Chennai. Both leaders who are appointed by the mob to censor the film are part of the government of India. Dr. Ramadoss is a constituent of the Union Cabinet of India that runs the central government.

They threatened to burn the film rolls of Prabhakaran, one of the most ruthless terrorists of the world, who is convicted for the conspiracy to assassinate former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi is portrayed in a bad light. They further threatened not to allow the film to be printed in Chennai, the very city where Gandhi was assassinated and vowed never to allow the film to be shown in Tamil Nadu.

Courtesy - Asian Tribune