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Muttiah Muralitharan's biopic lands in controversy as Tamil star Vijay Sethupathi faces backlash

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Tamil star Vijay Sethupathi will be essaying the role of legendary Sri Lankan cricketer Muttiah Muralitharan in his upcoming movie titled '800'. However, the biopic on the Sri Lankan great has landed in hot soup even before its release as Sethupathi has been facing immense backlash on social media for playing Muralitharan's character in the movie.

#ShameOnVijaySethupati trended on Twitter as fans expressed their outrage against the biopic. The actor has been facing the heat on Twitter from a section of society, who feel Muralitharan never spoke against the alleged atrocities inflicted on the Tamil population in the country by the Sri Lankan government. Some also expressed anger over Sethupathi wearing a Sri Lankan flag on his jersey. Pro Tamil groups and politicians have asked the actor to stay away from the movie.

The Tamil fans are against the biopic as they believe it portrays someone who sided with the government that has over the years attacked Tamilians, in a heroic manner. Muralitharan had last year faced the backlash on Twitter after expressing his support to the ruling Rajapaksa family and denying alleged attack on Tamilians in 2009.

A host of biopics on sportspersons have so far been made in India and a movie on Muralitharan is latest to join the list. But the film has been embroiled in controversy even before its release. The movie '800' is all set to be made in Tamil but will also be released in other languages like Hindi, Bengali and Sinhalese.

Muralitharan is one of the greatest spinners of all-time and holds the record for picking up the highest number of wickets in Test cricket. Muralitharan scalped a staggering 800 wickets in 133 Test matches. The legendary spinner played 133 Tests and 350 ODIs, picking up 800 and 534 wickets in the two formats respectively. He made his international debut for Sri Lanka in 1992 and played his last game at the 2011 World Cup.

https://www.timesnownews.com/sports...l-star-vijay-sethupathi-faces-backlash/667909
 
Muttiah Muralitharan biopic 800 lands in soup, makers claim film ‘does not make any political statement’

The motion poster of veteran Sri Lankan cricketer Muttiah Muralitharan’s biopic 800 was released yesterday. Directed by MS Sripathy, 800 will see actor Vijay Sethupathy in the lead role. Ever since the motion poster was launched, there has been outrage amongst pro-Tamil groups on social media platforms.

Though the poster was appreciated by a section of film enthusiasts as Vijay Sethupathi looked convincing as the legendary Sri Lankan spinner, the rest were upset that the actor agreed to play Muralitharan. They claimed that Muralitharan didn’t criticize the alleged atrocities of the Sri Lankan government against Tamils during the civil war in Sri Lanka.

A sector of Netizens, mostly cadres of Naam Tamilar Katchi, a small fringe outfit in Tamil Nadu, used Hashtags like #ShameonVijaySethupathi on Twitter to show their disappointment.

Under these circumstances, Dar Motion Pictures, which is bankrolling the movie, has issued a statement saying 800 is “purely a sports biography” about legendary cricketer Muttiah Muralitharan and it is being politicized in many ways.

“The film is a journey about a man who hails from the Tamil migrant community, going on to become the highest wicket taker of all time. The film does not make any political statement favouring any community. The film is intended to be an inspiration for the younger generation to achieve their dreams irrespective of the difficulties they come across in their journey. We as the Producers assure this film will not showcase any scenes that would belittle the struggles of Eelam Tamils in Sri Lanka or hurt their sentiments in any way,” the statement read.

Further, the makers claimed that 800 will engage the Tamil film community in Sri Lanka providing the artistes and technicians a platform to showcase their talents on a global stage.

“Art is beyond boundaries; it unites people all across. Artistes belong to the world. We wish to spread only the positivity, love and hope,” the statement added.

In the past, pro-Tamil groups have called for a ban on several movies that have had a Sri Lankan connection. In 2014, Vijay-starrer Kaththi ran into trouble as it was produced under the banner Lyca Productions. The protesters claimed the producers of the movie have a close association with Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa

https://indianexpress.com/article/e...thi-800-is-purely-a-sports-biography-6725144/
 
I respect Tamils, they have a strong national identity and deserve their own country on both sides of the Palk strait.
 
Social media has ruined everything.
 
Giannis said:
I respect Tamils, they have a strong national identity and deserve their own country on both sides of the Palk strait.
Click to expand...


You seem to know sweet FA about Tamils.

All notions of 'Tamil Nationalism' ended with the death of Velupillai Prabhakaran (Doubt if you'll know the name , so google it).
 
gani999 said:
You seem to know sweet FA about Tamils.

All notions of 'Tamil Nationalism' ended with the death of Velupillai Prabhakaran (Doubt if you'll know the name , so google it).
Click to expand...

prabhakaran images and LTTE terrorist group's flags are openly displayed on shops and cars here in chennai.
 
CricketCartoons said:
prabhakaran images and LTTE terrorist group's flags are openly displayed on shops and cars here in chennai.
Click to expand...

LTTE flags and Prabhakaran images have always been openly displayed in Tamil Nadu. The movement still has a few supporters (Vaiko's MDMK), and is still quite respected among the Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora in the West.

But for all intents and purposes, the movement died ever since the Sri Lankan army cleaned up every trace of it in the Jaffna peninsula.
 
Last edited:
JaDed said:
No one makes Sanghis or Rajputs look good.
Click to expand...

A tamil guy told me this today, so was surprised. Btw he said tamil extremists, so he has a point. maybe rajput extremists (as opposed to just rajputs) can be more extreme than tamil extremists, but then they didn't have a terrorist org.
 
A popular actor has withdrawn from starring as Sri Lanka’s legendary spinner Muttiah Muralitharan in a biopic after the cricketer himself warned him off, saying he could face a backlash from India’s Tamils.

Vijay Sethupathi, 42, had been under pressure in his southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu to drop the role in the film 800 – named after the world record number of Test wickets Muralitharan took in his celebrated career.

Tamil politicians in India accuse Muralitharan, who retired from Test cricket in 2010, of betraying fellow Tamils in his country during a civil war that ended in 2009.

“I don’t want one of the finest actors in Tamil Nadu to face any kind of trouble, hence I request him to drop out of the project,” Muralitharan, 48, wrote in a letter tweeted by the actor. “There should be no obstacles for Sethupathi in the future because of this movie.”

Sethupathi wrote alongside the image of the letter: “Thank you and goodbye.”

India’s regional Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) party, which opposes the Sinhalese-led government in Sri Lanka, had demanded Sethupathi reject the role, saying Muralitharan sided with Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa who, as president at the time, defeated the separatist Tamil Tiger uprising.

Fans also slammed the actor on social media, using the hashtag #shameonVijaySethupathi.

But several Tamil actors also came out in support of Muralitharan and Sethupati.

“[Muralitharan] is a very important topic and that film is a complex idea because Murali is one of those Indian Tamils … who were marginalised,” actor Prakash Belawadi told India Today TV.

Belawadi was referring to the existence of a split of sorts in the Tamil community in Sri Lanka: there are the Indigenous Eelam Tamils, and the “estate Tamils” who were taken there as plantation workers by the British colonisers 200 years ago. “Estate Tamils” face discrimination even from the native Tamils.

“Murali is a great example of somebody who has emerged from this class,” Belawadi said.

What was the uproar about?

The rancour towards Muralitharan dates back to 2013 when he said then-British Prime Minister David Cameron that he may have been “misled” about the situation of Tamils in the north after Cameron visited the area and was met by tens of mothers, wives and sisters who were still searching for their loved ones who had disappeared during the war.

Muralitharan, who is currently working as a bowling coach with Indian Premier League side Sunrisers Hyderabad for the continuing tournament in the United Arab Emirates, had said his remarks about Sri Lanka’s ethnic war were “misunderstood”.

Muralitharan added in the letter that he hoped a new lead would be announced soon.

“I accepted this biopic because I thought the movie will inspire and provide confidence to aspiring young cricketers,” he wrote.

A source close to Muralitharan said in Colombo: “The movie project will go on without Vijay. Producers are already discussing ways to proceed.”

The United Nations and international rights groups have accused Sri Lankan forces of killing at least 40,000 minority Tamils in the final campaign against the Tigers.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020...sri-lanka-cricket-legends-biopic-after-uproar
 
CricketCartoons said:
A tamil guy told me this today, so was surprised. Btw he said tamil extremists, so he has a point. maybe rajput extremists (as opposed to just rajputs) can be more extreme than tamil extremists, but then they didn't have a terrorist org.
Click to expand...

Yeah they are just casteist in their own Region
 
CricketCartoons said:
That is everywhere, and very much in TN. You are not being objective. No need to be apologetic about tamil extremists.
Click to expand...

I’m not you are the one that brought in Sanghis in a thread about Tamizhans.. so i just added Rajputs as well
 
JaDed said:
I’m not you are the one that brought in Sanghis in a thread about Tamizhans.. so i just added Rajputs as well
Click to expand...

Didn't know sanghis meant rajputs. This was a relevant quote from a tamilian himself, that the barrage of hatred he faced from tamil extremists made sanghis look better, and he is often a target of sanghis. All his fault was that he was against this attack on sethupathi.
 
CricketCartoons said:
Actor Vijay Sethupathi's Daughter Gets Rape Threat Over Muttiah Muralitharan Biopic Row

https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/mut...sethupathis-daughter-gets-rape-threat-2313122
Click to expand...

Why does everyone in hot water ends up getting rape threats in SC?

Isn't our society big on family values/religion/conservative so why is it that female figures are not respected seems a bit odd

I am genuinely curious it seems a bit odd I don't see this behavior in other regions (atleast not at the level in SC)
 
Bigboii said:
Why does everyone in hot water ends up getting rape threats in SC?

Isn't our society big on family values/religion/conservative so why is it that female figures are not respected seems a bit odd

I am genuinely curious it seems a bit odd I don't see this behavior in other regions (atleast not at the level in SC)
Click to expand...

SC folks are next level.

Rape is a tool for power, punishment, subjugation and pleasure.

We won't touch dalits but we will happily rape them.

As long as we take a bath post raping, it's all good.
 
Former Sri Lankan cricketing great Muttiah Muralitharan says a planned film about his life will be released, despite a massive backlash in south India which caused the lead actor to quit. The BBC's Nalini Sivathasan speaks to him and explains the controversy around the film.

"I've been in so many controversies, not just cricketing. I have got through hurdles. This is just one of the many challenges I've faced," says the 48-year-old of the uproar around the film.

A member of Sri Lanka's minority Tamils, Muralitharan defied the odds to make it on to the national team during a long civil war between Tamil separatists and the Sinhalese-majority security forces.

Then, he battled controversy over his bowling action - he was famously no-balled for "chucking" in Australia - to become one of the most formidable bowlers the cricketing world has ever seen.

However the biopic of his life - entitled 800, a reference to his record-breaking 800 Test match wickets - may be his biggest obstacle yet.

Shooting has yet to start, but when a film poster featuring popular south Indian actor Vijay Sethupathi in the lead role was released there was a massive outpouring of anger

The hashtag #ShameOnVijaySethupathi started trending across the state of Tamil Nadu, with many demanding that he turn down the role.

The film's producers have called it a "sports biography", intended to inspire young people, but critics fear a hagiography, an attempt to glorify someone who has become a controversial political issue.

Much of the outrage stems from Muralitharan's comments at a presidential election event last year, at which he celebrated the end of the war in 2009 and supported the candidacy of Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Mr Rajapaksa was the defence secretary when government forces crushed Tamil Tiger separatists in a brutal campaign that also left tens of thousands of civilians dead.

He said the "happiest day of my life" was in 2009 as the country could now "go on without fear".

An estimated 40,000 Sri Lankan Tamil civilians are believed to have died in the last stages of the war, and it has been an emotive issue in Tamil Nadu, where the same language and ethnic identity are shared.

"Even though Muralitharan is a Tamil, he does not behave as a Tamil, and we don't want him to enter Tamil Nadu in any form - whether in person or on film," said V Prabha, a youth activist based in Chennai (formerly Madras).

"Muralitharan did many wrongs during the Sri Lankan civil war, we don't want him to be a hero in the Tamil community."

But Muralitharan says his words have been repeatedly "twisted" and taken out of context.

"I meant that after 2009, we had peace in this country. For me when the war finished, it was the happiest day of my life because peace came - not because Tamil civilians were killed," he said, speaking from Dubai, where he is a bowling coach for the Sunrisers Hyderabad team at the Indian Premier League (IPL) tournament being held there.

"I did not take any sides over the war - Rajapaksa side or the other side. I was in the middle. People in India don't know what's happening in Sri Lanka."

Muralitharan has close links with India, especially Tamil Nadu. His wife is from the state and he represented Chennai when he played for Chennai Super Kings from 2008 to 2010, becoming one of the team's most most popular players.

So why is the film so contentious?

"In 2010, people in Tamil Nadu knew what had happened to Tamils in the Sri Lankan civil war, but they didn't connect Muralitharan to it," said Mr Prabha.

"We then started a campaign showing how he supported the Sri Lankan state, and by 2013, we were able to ban him and other Sri Lankan players here."

In 2013, the Tamil Nadu government banned IPL games with Sri Lankan players from being played in the state, due to alleged human rights violations of Tamils in Sri Lanka.

Kavitha Muralidharan, a freelance journalist in Chennai, says the furore over Muralitharan's biopic has been so intense because of its lead actor, 42-year-old Vijay Sethupathi.

"Sethupathi is seen as a progressive actor, he speaks out on a lot of social issues, so for many people it was troubling to see him choosing to play the role of Muttiah Muralitharan," she said.

"People in Tamil Nadu take cinema very seriously. A movie is not just a movie there - Tamil cinema and politics are inter-related."

Tamil nationalism is often infused into Kollywood, as the Tamil cinema industry is known. A number of the state's chief ministers were actors before they took to politics.

The pressure on Sethupathi to quit came from both film stars and politicians.

But it was Muralitharan's surprise intervention - he asked the actor to withdraw - that decided the issue.

"Why does Sethupathi have to have unnecessary problems with this movie? Why do I want to put these problems on him?" the cricketer asks.

"This is my battle, not his battle, so I will take on the battle."

The response in Sri Lanka - where he is widely regarded as a sporting hero - has been mixed.

"I would have loved to see a film about him, not glorifying him, but something which brings all aspects of his complex identity to the screen," said Andrew Fidel Fernando, a cricket writer in Colombo, who has written extensively about Muralitharan's cricketing reign.

"The immediate backlash to the film seems ludicrous - we don't know what the film would have been like."

Families of Tamils who went missing during the Sri Lankan civil war are more critical, with some calling for the film to be scrapped completely.

"Muralitharan's words - when he said 2009 was the happiest time of his life - have affected Tamil people all over the world, worse than this coronavirus pandemic," Gopalakrishnan Rajkumar, who represents families of the disappeared, told BBC Tamil.

"Because he was Tamil, he became popular, but he hasn't done anything for Tamil people here."

The film's producers, Dar Motion Pictures (which made the Bollywood films The Lunchbox and Ugly) and Movie Train Motion Pictures had hoped to begin shooting 800 in early 2021. Without a lead actor, that now seems unlikely.

But Muralitharan is confident that his story will be told on screen.

"It will be made. The film's not just for Tamil Nadu. The producers are from Mumbai, they want it in all languages, in Tamil, Sinhala, Hindi, Bengali, Telugu, Malayalam and with English subtitles," he says.

"It's a sports movie, how can it be controversial?"

Yet the furore around 800 suggests it will be difficult to separate the cricketing legend from his politics.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-54701279
 
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