The critically acclaimed film ‘Jai Bhim’ that turned out to be a huge hit in the year 2021 is in controversy for allegedly wrongly representing the Vanniyar Community. In regard to the controversy, a Chennai Court on Thursday directed the Police to file an official complaint against actor Suriya, his wife Jyothika, and director Gnanavel.
This is after the representatives of the Rudra Vanniyar Sena approached the Saidapet court in November 2021 to seek directions to file case against the actor couple and the director of the movie. They mentioned in the petition that some of the scenes from the film ‘Jai Bhim’ allegedly showed the Vanniyar Community in a bad light. They also mentioned that the villain in the movie had been shown from the Vanniyar Community with their sacred motif ‘Agni’ being situated in the frame. “The sub-inspector in the movie, is shown from the community and is depicted as an enemy of the Irular community”, the petition stated.
Chennai court directs the police to file a case against actor Surya, wife Jyothika & director Gnanavel for “wrongly representing the Vanniyar Community in the Jai Bhim movie.”@nimumurali shares details with @ridhimb.
— News18 (@CNNnews18) May 5, 2022
Advocate @irajashekaran reacts pic.twitter.com/ABCYKXEpa8
The Court heard the case first on April 29 and directed the Police to file case against actor and director of the film on Thursday. The court noted that some cognizable offence is disclosed in the complaint and that prima facie, a case is made out. The court has forwarded the complaint to the Inspector of police in Velachery to register an FIR according to law and investigate the case. The case will be heard again on May 20.
The film ‘Jai Bhim’ has been produced by the actor couple Suriya and Jyothika and has been directed by Gnanavel. It is important to note that the film was the top searched film of the year 2021 and is one of the boldest films to have come out of Tamil cinema. It revolves around the character named Senggeni (Lijomol Jose), the wife of Rajakannu (Manikandan) who fights a lonely battle in the road to justice for her husband’s custodial torture and death. She meanwhile gets the rousing support from her lawyer named Chandru (Suriya).
This is not the first time that the film that is claimed to be based on true events has found itself in the eye of a raging storm. Earlier, the film had gripped into controversy after the viewers accused the creators of the movie of peddling fiction under the guise of making a movie based on true incidents. The viewers had alleged that the makers of the movie had deceitfully changed the castes of certain characters to perpetuate their political propaganda.
தோழர் சூர்யா வேலய காட்ட ஆரம்பிச்சிட்டாப்ல..#குறியீடு – வன்னியர் சமூக ஆளை வில்லனாக காட்டியிருக்காங்க…#குறிப்பு – படத்த படமா பாருங்க டா னு அட்வைஸ் பன்ற புரட்சி போராளிகளுக்கு என்னோட பதில்
— JSK.Gopi (Jayam.SK.Gopi) (@JSKGopi) November 2, 2021
இதே மாதிரி #திரௌபதி.#ருத்ர_தாண்டவம் படத்தையும் ஏன்டா நீங்க படமா பாக்கல… pic.twitter.com/J97xdAGeDw
Recently, the legal drama bagged two awards at the Dadasaheb Phalke International Film Festival (DPIFF). Actor Manikandan, who played the role of Rasakannu received the ‘Best Supporting Actor’ award while the film itself bagged the ‘Best Film’ award. The film was released on November 2 on OTT platform Amazon Prime.
