Two photo journalists from English daily, The Hindu were allegedly attacked by three crew members of Rajinikanth’s film 2.0 in Triplicane in Chennai on Wednesday.

The incident took place at 9:55am in Chennai’s Triplicane, where the shooting of director Shankar’s 2.0 was taking place. The Chennai police had granted Lyca Productions permission to shoot in Nochikuppam and Eswardoss Street in Triplicane between 23:00hrs and 6am on Wednesday. However, reports suggest that the crew had exceeded the time limit and had allegedly caused a hindrance to traffic in Triplicane.

Two photographers belonging to The Hindu, who were passing through Triplicane, were attempting to take photographs of the commotion when they were allegedly assaulted by three crew members. Assistant Director Pappu, who is also a relative of Shankar along with two others – Alex and Sundharraj were allegedly involved in the attack.   

Following a complaint by Raghunathan, one of the photo journalists, an FIR was registered against the three crew members by the Ice House Police Station. Pappu, Alex and Sundharraj have been booked under section 341 (wrongful restraint), 294(b) (uttering obscene words in public place), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 506 (ii) (criminal intimidation).

While the Chennai police detained Pappu, the other two crew members are yet to be detained.

Image courtesy: Twitter/Ahmedshabbir20

Addressing journalists at the Chennai Press Club, filmmaker Shankar apologised for the incident, stating,

“This incident happened without my knowledge. I feel very sorry for that and I will see to it that it won’t happen again.”

2.0 is the much-anticipated Rajinikanth starrer and is a sequel to Enthiran. Being made on a lavish budget of Rs. 450 crore, the film also stars Amy Jackson, Akshay Kumar, Sudhanshu Pandey and Adil Hussain.