Protests Over Vijay's Kaththi Release: Is It Politically Motivated?

The trailer of Ilayathalapathy Vijay's "Kaththi" was released on Sunday (19 October) and has been received well by the audience. The film is now gearing up to hit screens on 22 October amidst protests, which, for the actor's well-wishers, is politically motivated.

The Vijay starrer "Kaththi" is getting ready for release in spite of fears of postponement of the film are in the air. Several Tamil groups are protesting against the movie alleging that the Lyca Production has links with Sri Lankan President Mahindra Rajapaksa, who is accused of massacring innocent Tamil civilians in his war against the LTTE in the island nation.

Hence, the connection of the Lyca Productions with the Sri Lankan President has become a political issue in Tamil Nadu. A meeting ti solve the issue was held on Sunday and it was attended by exhibitors, distributors and others, who are linked with the film in one or the other way. But they could not find an amicable solution. The Tamil groups are ready to call off the strike if "Kaththi" is released without the name of the production house - Lyca Production. But the makers of the film are not happy with the idea.

Meanwhile, the theatre owners are also not willing to take risk by releasing the movie in their theatres and they will reportedly release the flick if only the protests are called off by the Tamil outfits. Earlier, during the release of "Vishwaroopam", protesters had damaged the properties of a few theatres, who screened the film despite the threat from fringe groups. So, this has made the theatre owners to play it safe this time.

The fate of "Kaththi" will be decided by today evening and we hear that Lyca Productions is hopeful of resolving the issue.

On the other hand, people close to the actor allege that the protests are politically motivated to clip the wings of Vijay, who wants to enter politics in the future. It appears that their argument has some truth in it as this is not the first time that his films have landed in trouble. The last few movies of the Ilayathalapathy were unnecessarily dragged into controversies. Notable among them is the "Thalaivaa" release issue where the film was unofficially banned in the state for some petty reasons.

The fans and the industry hope that the movie will release as per schedule. Tamil celebs, on social networking sites, have supported the Kollywood movie. Actor Mohan Raman and producer-politician J Anbazhagan have taken into the Twitter and expressed their support to "Kaththi".