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Thalabathi starrer, Mersal provokes BJP:
Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights (and firecrackers), is the time blockbuster vacation-time films are released in India.
But it's been fireworks of the political kind this Diwali over a film, Mersal, that hit screens in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu last week.
Mersal is a crowd pleasing film about a vigilante hero seeking to shine a light on the ills commoners suffer due to political interference and apathy in the healthcare sector.
In the film, Vijay plays a character named Dr Maran, who takes a hard look at the state of public healthcare in the country.
In the controversial climax scene, Dr Maran takes up the recent introduction of the Goods and Services Tax levied by the federal BJP government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
In June, India replaced its numerous federal and state taxes with the GST, designed to unify the country into a single market. Under the new system, goods and services are taxed under four rates - 5%, 12% 18% and 28%.
Tamil Nadu BJP leader H Raja accused Vijay of carrying on a "hate campaign" against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the film.
But Vijay's Twitter fans, who number over three million, aren't buying this.
They have posted pictures of Mr Modi meeting the star during a visit to the capital, Chennai (Madras), in 2014, and accused the BJP of wooing Vijay's fan base for their votes.
The producers of the film say that Mersal does not "propagate" against the government.
"It is a film that speaks in support of free universal health care. The film's crux is the dream of a doctor," the producers said in a statement.
Mersal's producer Hema Rukmani told the BBC on Sunday that while no scenes or dialogue have been deleted from the film, the producers had met local BJP leaders to "resolve differences".
"We had an amicable meeting," she said.
In the end, the Twitter war and public controversy over Mersal have helped fuelled interest in the film and made it a talking point - and a blockbuster - in Tamil Nadu.
See full article here,
#Modi #BJP @HRajaBJP Gagging is not a solution. BBC News - Mersal: Social media pits India film star against PM Modi https://t.co/Hk8ktasyrX— Jayaraj (@Sjayaraj1999) October 26, 2017