In the past few days, there have been murmurs that businessman and film-producer Ashok Khenny wants to make a biopic of legendry ruler Tipu Sultan and wants to cast Rajinikanth in the role. The producer has apparently even approached Rajinikanth. Hindu groups in Tamil Nadu are however angry about this and do not want Rajinikanth to take the project. Tipu Sultan is seen as to have been an anti-HIndu ruler by some.
The New Indian Express reports that Hindu Munnani leader Rama Gopalan appealed to all filmstars including superstar on Thursday to not take the role of Tipu Sultan. He said that Tipu was 'anti-Tamil'.
TNIE reports,
He said, “The film is an attempt to portray Tippu Sultan as a freedom fighter. But he committed atrocities on Tamils during his invasion.”
Quoting from the autobiography of AIADMK founder MGR’s ‘Naan Yaen Pirandhaen’, Rama Gopalan said the leader loved by the Tamil people had stated that his ancestors who were living in Pollachi were forced to move to Palakkadu to escape the atrocities committed by Tippu Sultan’s regime.
He said people from the Tamil film industry who love Tamils and Tamil Nadu should announce that they would not act in the film on Tippu Sultan and that the film would not be allowed to be screened in the State, he added.
Media reports suggested earlier that the Tipu Sultan movie was being planned a big-budget movie on the lines of 'Baahubali'.
As IBTimes points out, this is not the first time that Rajinikanth is being linked to a Tipu Sultan project. There were speculations earlier that Kamal Haasan would direct a biopic titled "Tippuvum Unniaarchayum", in which Rajinikanth would play the lead role, but it never materialised.