Wednesday, June 17, 2020

Not nepotism but politicians made Rajnikanth- Kamal to cringe



If nepotism rules Bollywood according to many, it is political dadagiri that rules Kollywood. If the Khans or Kapoors had said something similar to what Rajinikanth or Kamalhassan said, it would have been a breaking news in CNN, WION . Rajinikanth after the clash with PMK political party over depiction of smoking scenes in BABA - If I go to Mumbai, I am called a Madrasi. In Karnataka, I am a Tamizhan and here in Tamil Nadu, where I earned my bread and butter, I am a Kaannadiga. Where should I go?. Am not an Indian? Next shift to Kamal after the opposition by Muslim bodies (read as instigated by AIADMK) over Viswaroopam release.- If my nationality is questioned , then I think it is better to leave India and go to another country.

Shift to a function held by entire Kollywood to felicitate Karunanidhi on becoming the CM (It was not the first time he was becoming CM). Ajith goes on stage and says - Please do not compel anyone to attend such functions. Rajini stands up and claps. Cut to Udhaynidhi Stalin (actor - producer) who moves court to get a directive to ask the State committee to declare that the film he produced is serving the purpose of spreading the Tamil language. This enables the producer to get a tax exemption, a rule passed by his grandfather Karunanidhi and turned into a weapon by Jayalalithaa to deny tax sops to those having DMK links.  A Vijay starrer `Mersal’ which had dialogues against GST in the trailor , led to BJP warning distributors and theatres that if it was screened with the objectionable portions, they would face the music. DMK MLA J Anabazhagan ( who passed away recently due to Covid 19) said that he is willing to distribute it all over the State , without any changes. When Jayalalithaa was alive, Rajini in `Annamalai’ and later in `Padayappa’ had taken onscreen potshots at her. In the first instance, she was in power and brought in  a rule that Madras should not have film posters. In the second instance, she was not in power.
Vijay who did suffer from Jayalalithaa’s autocratic ways. It was mainly to help Jaya TV ,then owned by Sasikala . Earlier he had to do a volte-face as his father agreed to help AIADMK election campaign but did not do so and unluckily for him, Jayalalithaa came to power. Since then, he had been facing problems. After Jayalalithaa’s death, came Sarkar ( 2017). It stirred a hornets’ nest as it talked about Jayalalithaa’s freebie politics and to top it the antagonist in the film was Komalavalli(  a name given to Jayalalithaa by her grandmother) Predictably, it created a turbulent period in film trade as AIADMK was in power.
Now that Rajini and Kamal have entered politics and Stalin seems to be having a cordial relationship with both, the era of political muscle play in filmdom would hopefully end. When Karunanidhi was CM, Jayalalithaa alleged that Stalin’s son, Alagiri’s son and Sun TV were controlling the filmdom and arm twisting was rampant. Satellite rights were bought but no cash was given by Sun TV and after Jayalalithaa came back to power, a few cases and money reached those who were to get it. Now Sun TV is producing blockbusters and buying them too. Jaya TV and Luxe Cinemas of Sasikala have no backing of the ruling EPS- OPS group. BJP seems to harbor a grudge against Vijay and the IT raids were a part of it. The politicalisation of film trade bodies needs to be eradicated to bring in a transparent business scenario is what many films corporate who did business in Kollywood feel. Most of them have left in disgust.
As a journalist covering four South film industries, I can say that Kannada and Telugu filmdom does have a nepotism culture. To a little extent, it does exist in Malayalam. We all know about Prithiviraj who faced hardships in the initial days. Now, he has directed a film with Mohanlal as hero and latter’s man Friday as producer.  A few days back, a director spoke about Prithiviraj’s father Late Sukumaran  unofficially getting blacklisted from the industry. Sukumaran , whenever in Chennai, made it  a point to sit over a drink with me and hear about Kodambakkam news. His visits became rare and I heard that he was not called by producers. In one of his visits, I think to sell his flat in Gemini Parsn (don’t remember), I met him. I asked what the problem was. Laughingly he said – “I was on a flight to home. I did not get up and wish Joy. From that day onwards, my phone stopped ringing. Many think that I am an extravagant arrogant xxx. I have invested all my money safely enough for my family to live comfortably. Just because I am not doing films, do not stop meeting me. You ( my tribe) people have this habit of chasing only those in limelight. I don’t blame you. Your owner wants to sell his paper,”
As he rightly predicted , though I visited Trivandrum ( my home town) many times after that, it slipped my mind to pick up the phone and meet him for a drink.


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