Soon after the release of Vijay’s Sarkar, social media was flooded with videos of fans supporting the movie as well as the actor, after the ruling AIADMK in Tamil Nadu raised objections against certain scenes in the film. While some made TikTok videos of them throwing away home appliances, taking inspiration from the movie itself, a few others shot videos that were quite strongly worded. Among a few videos that were widely shared one made by two young men who called themselves ardent Vijay fans. This, in turn, has landed them in trouble.
In the video that went viral, the men - identified as Lingadurai and Sanjay from Chennai’s Ennore - can be seen brandishing a billhook (arival) and hurling abuses at AIADMK members who had demanded that the objectionable scenes be deleted. Following this, a person named G Prakashkumar filed a complaint on November 9 with the Chennai Central Crime Branch - Cyber Crime Department.
On Thursday, the police arrested Sanjay as well as Anishek from Vadapalani, the duo’s friend who helped them shoot the video. The police have also confiscated the billhook seen in the video as well as the phone used to shoot it. Police are currently on the lookout for Lingadurai, the other man who was seen in the video.
Sarkar, directed by AR Murugadoss, was a political drama that was released on November 7 worldwide. While the film struck gold at the box office, it received flak from the ruling party of the state. A day after the release of the film, the Information and Publicity Minister of Tamil Nadu as well as the Law Minister of Tamil Nadu had warned against the screening of the film, claiming that the film criticised the government’s freebie scheme and that the “people will not accept these political motives”. Soon, the film’s director agreed to remove the scenes that were deemed offensive by AIADMK party members.
Starring Vijay, Keerthy Suresh, Varalaxmi Sarathkumar, Radha Ravi and Pala Karuppiah in lead roles, Sarkar was produced by Sun Pictures.