BML 5.04 Decreased By ▼ -0.06 (-1.18%)
BOP 11.85 Increased By ▲ 0.04 (0.34%)
CNERGY 7.15 Decreased By ▼ -0.01 (-0.14%)
CPHL 88.00 Decreased By ▼ -0.40 (-0.45%)
DCL 14.17 Increased By ▲ 0.07 (0.5%)
DGKC 168.40 Increased By ▲ 0.21 (0.12%)
FCCL 46.15 Decreased By ▼ -0.43 (-0.92%)
FFL 16.15 Increased By ▲ 0.08 (0.5%)
GCIL 27.60 Decreased By ▼ -0.28 (-1%)
HUBC 141.50 Decreased By ▼ -0.42 (-0.3%)
KEL 5.16 Increased By ▲ 0.03 (0.58%)
KOSM 6.56 Increased By ▲ 0.22 (3.47%)
LOTCHEM 21.10 Decreased By ▼ -0.33 (-1.54%)
MLCF 84.75 Decreased By ▼ -0.50 (-0.59%)
NBP 119.50 Decreased By ▼ -1.81 (-1.49%)
PAEL 42.51 Decreased By ▼ -0.37 (-0.86%)
PIAHCLA 22.39 Increased By ▲ 1.23 (5.81%)
PIBTL 8.97 Decreased By ▼ -0.10 (-1.1%)
POWER 13.99 Increased By ▲ 0.14 (1.01%)
PPL 171.09 Decreased By ▼ -1.58 (-0.92%)
PREMA 44.30 Increased By ▲ 0.50 (1.14%)
PRL 33.26 Decreased By ▼ -0.09 (-0.27%)
PTC 25.43 Decreased By ▼ -0.01 (-0.04%)
SNGP 119.62 Decreased By ▼ -1.07 (-0.89%)
SSGC 45.71 Decreased By ▼ -0.82 (-1.76%)
TELE 8.42 Increased By ▲ 0.05 (0.6%)
TPLP 11.09 Increased By ▲ 0.37 (3.45%)
TREET 24.46 Increased By ▲ 0.65 (2.73%)
TRG 57.85 Decreased By ▼ -0.09 (-0.16%)
WTL 1.59 Decreased By ▼ -0.01 (-0.63%)
BR100 13,479 Decreased By -70.4 (-0.52%)
BR30 39,684 Decreased By -130 (-0.33%)
KSE100 132,861 Decreased By -541.8 (-0.41%)
KSE30 40,431 Decreased By -220.1 (-0.54%)

CHENNAI: The star of a hit new Indian film tackling the oppression of marginalised communities was under armed police guard Thursday after threats of violence.

"Jai Bhim" is a legal drama based on the true story of an activist lawyer fighting for a tribal woman whose husband was wrongly arrested and killed in police custody in 1993.

The movie is the latest to highlight the plight of India's millions of tribal people and low-caste Dalits -- "untouchables" -- at the bottom of the Hindu caste system.

The film, released on Amazon Prime, has received rave reviews and unusually for a Tamil-language movie has been successful right across the vast country of 22 official languages.

"Jai Bhim" was briefly the highest-ranked film on movie database IMDb -- owned by Amazon -- beating Hollywood classics such as "The Godfather" and "The Shawshank Redemption".

But it has also angered many people in the southern state of Tamil Nadu where it is set, in particular the Vanniyar caste community who say that the film portrays them in a bad light.

Drums, cake and milk as Indian cinemas dance back to life

Vanniyar Sangam, a body representing the community, has issued a legal notice to the filmmakers seeking damages and demanding the removal of certain scenes.

A member of a local political party even offered 100,000 rupees ($1,340) to anyone who physically attacks the main actor Saravanan Sivakumar, better known as Suriya, who is also the film's co-producer.

Police have since opened an investigation into the politician, and Suriya's home in Chennai is now guarded by five armed officers and the actor -- a major star in Tamil cinema -- has additional security when he travels.

This and other threats to Suriya have prompted an outpouring of support for the actor, with the hashtag #WeStandWithSuriya trending on social media.

"Can't express in words how thankful I am for the trust & reassurance you all have given us," the 46-year-old said on Twitter.

Comments

Comments are closed.