A short while after a post from the official Twitter handle of Sun Pictures, the producers of the movie Sarkar, on the impending arrest of AR Murugadoss, the director himself stepped in to clarify the situation on Thursday night. In his tweet, about an hour after the tweet by Sun Pictures, the director stated that the police had indeed knocked on the doors and had left since he was not at the house in Arumbakkam in Chennai.
“Police had come to my house late tonight and banged the door several times. Since I was not there they left the premises. Right now I was told there is no police outside my house,” read the tweet. His tweet comes after an hour of frenzy created due to the tweet by Sun Pictures, late on Thursday night.
The tweet by Sun Pictures stated that the Chennai police were at director AR Murugadoss’s residence to arrest him. The tweet came at the end of a day mired in controversies and protests by members of the ruling AIADMK against certain scenes in the movie.
Police had come to my house late tonight and banged the door several times.Since I was not there they left the premises. Right now I was told there is no police outside my house.
— A.R.Murugadoss (@ARMurugadoss) November 8, 2018
However, independent inquiries by TNM confirmed that the police were on their regular patrolling duty in the area and that there were no plans to arrest Murugadoss. The police also told TNM that there was no possibility of an arrest since there was no FIR against the director.
Widespread protests and agitations were staged in Madurai, Coimbatore and other places in Tamil Nadu, seeking the removal of some controversial scenes in the movie. Among these, the scene that depicted AR Murugadoss in a cameo, throwing certain articles received as a freebie from the government into the fire, too, is said to have ruffled the feathers of the AIADMK.
In Coimbatore, protestors tore off the banners erected by Vijay fans inside the premises of a theatre and raised slogans against the movie and its producer Kalanidhi Maran. Following similar protests, night shows of the movie were cancelled in many theatres across the state.
A complaint was also filed with the Chennai city Police Commissioner, demanding action against AR Murugadoss under section 124A (Sedition) of the IPC, for insulting the government of Tamil Nadu.