Nivin Pauly and Alphonse Putharen are not going to like this.
The tragic death of a 20-year-old girl student at the College of Engineering in Thiruvananthapuram after a jeep driven by students mowed her down has now become a full blown controversy. And there is an unexpected target – the super hit movie Premam.
In an interview to The News Minute, Kerala DGP TP Senkumar said that it was movies which were influencing students into behaving brash in college campuses. When asked about his comments in the media hinting at a particular movie influencing youngsters negatively, he said “Yes, I was talking about Premam and other movies too. We cannot deny that movies can have an influence on students. Students’ behaviour these days is similar to that of the heroes in the movies.”
In the movie Premam, the lead character played by Nivin Pauly is a rough and tough college strongman wearing a black shirt and white dhoti, sporting a dense beard. In the pictures and videos which have emerged from the CET campus where the accident happened, boys are seen donning the same attire. “Why are all these boys dressed like the hero in that movie? Today even in protests by Leftist organizations, you hardly see students wearing dhotis. They are opt for pants now. Look at their mannerisms, they were jumping up and down in the jeep,” says Senkumar.
CET Students involved in the accident
Nivin Pauly and others in Premam
This is not the first time Kerala DGP is going after movies for crimes in real life. In January 2014, he had pointed fingers at Mohanlal starrer Drishyam for being ‘dangerous’ and encouraging crime. “I had warned about Drishyam also and after that a crime happened where the accused confessed that they had disposed off the body inspired by the movie,” says the DGP.
He is not done with Premam, however. “Look at what they encourage in the movie – drinking and smoking.”
He also says that young teachers in Kerala are now feeling vulnerable. In Premam, the hero falls in love with one of the young teachers – and she reciprocates. This, he says, has lead to students trying their luck in real life. “I had got a call from a person who said that his wife, a professor, is feeling unsafe in her college,” he says.
When asked how he can blame just movies, he says, “I never said that movies are not the only influencing factor, but they do play a role. The reality is that good things influence us less, bad things influence us immediately.”