AIADMK leaders and supporters are angry over Vijay's film 'Sarkar'.
Tamil Nadu law minister CV Shanmugam on Thursday compared superstar Vijay's film 'Sarkar' to a "terrorist" activity. Condemning the film, Mr Shanmugam said, "Through this movie, an attempt has been made to instigate violence in society. It is not less than a terrorist instigating people for violence."
The minister threatened to "take action against the actor and the team" and alleged that the film "attempts to pull down a democratically elected government."
Yesterday, another state minister, Kadambur C Raju also threatened action if the objectionable scenes were not removed. He said he will consult the Chief Minister, Edapaddi Palaniswami about taking action.
The Tamil Nadu health department has already sent a legal notice to AR Murugadoss, the producer of the film and Vijay for promoting smoking in the film. The posters, released as the first look, showed the actor smoking a cigar.
"Sarkar' swept the box office and minted over Rs 100 crores within two days of its opening. It has run into trouble over some scenes that allegedly attacked former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa's welfare schemes. Jayalalithaa's fans claim scenes showing mixers and fans being set on fire are an obvious reference to her announcing freebies during election campaigns in 2011.
AIADMK leaders and workers today protested outside a multiplex in Madurai against the film. "We will continue to protest outside theatres till the controversial scenes and dialogues are removed," said AIADMK lawmaker, Rajan Chellappa.
This is not the first time that Vijay's films have run into trouble for their alleged political views. In 2017, the BJP objected his film 'Mersal' for promoting "misconceptions" about the central government's schemes, including Goods and Services Tax, demonetisation and the Digital India campaign.