Condemning sections of the media for turning a mourning place into a “circus” during the funeral of acclaimed Tamil actor-director K Bhagyaraj, actor Radikaa Sarathkumar has urged the Tamil Nadu government and the film industry to frame protocols that protect the privacy of grieving families and ensure dignity for the deceased.
Seventy-three-year-old Bhagyaraj passed away on June 27 following a heart attack. He was accorded full state honours for his contributions to Tamil cinema. However, scenes of chaos unfolded during his funeral the next day. As actors, filmmakers, and other celebrities arrived to pay their final respects, television crews, photographers, and YouTubers crowded around them in an attempt to capture emotional moments, drawing criticism for intruding on their privacy.
Videos circulating on social media showed Radikaa appealing to media personnel to stop turning the funeral into a spectacle and allow people to mourn in peace. Her requests, however, went largely unheeded.
On Monday, June 29, Radikaa renewed her appeal through a post on X, calling for clear guidelines to prevent such incidents.
“..A place where all needed to digress and mourn in silence, turned into a circus, for all who came to pay their respects. Where and when do we change or rather changed to this callousness. The government and industry need to sit and chart protocols and collective management, and give all dignity to the departed soul (sic),” she wrote.
Besides the Chief Minister, she also tagged the Press Council and Nadigar Sangam in her post.
In another post, she said there should be a “restraining order” governing media coverage of funerals.
A similar controversy had erupted during the funeral of veteran Malayalam actor Salim Kumar, when television channels and content creators were accused of relentlessly filming grieving family members instead of allowing them space to mourn. The coverage prompted Salim Kumar’s son, Chandu, to lash out at the media for their intrusive behaviour.