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A controversial year for the south

Chennai, IANS:

Tamil cinema has had more than its share of such happenings, subjecting film personalities to political and other pressure and raising issue of freedom of expression.

Controversies, protests, strikes, court wrangles and rigorous debates over freedom of expression marked the year 2005 for the film industry in South India.

Tamil cinema has had more than its share of such happenings, subjecting film personalities to political and other pressure and raising issue of freedom of expression.

It all started with producer-director-actor Thangar Bachchan making allegedly derogatory remarks about actresses at a function to release the audio of his film "Chidambarathil Oru Appasamy". The remarks were greeted with protests from the South Indian Artistes' Association and individual actresses including Khushboo. More violent protests by cadres of the Pattali Makkal Katchi and the Dalit Panthers greeted Khushboo's reported observations in a magazine interview a couple of months later.

Actress Suhasini, wife of noted director Mani Ratnam, faced flak too for defending Khushboo. Over 50 defamation cases were filed against Khushboo and Suhasini. A public outcry against the crude attacks on the freedom of expression and a Madras High Court intervention saved the two actresses from further embarrassment.

The Tamil films were the main targets of a fierce campaign in the early months of 2005 in neighbouring Karnataka.

The campaign, launched in November 2004 to demand a higher entertainment tax on non-Kannada films, continued into 2005 and culminated in the plea for a moratorium on these films. But the campaign died down soon. The Kannada film industry saw quite a significant number of films succeding at the box office.

It was pure cinema politics that paralysed the Malayalam film industry with producers, distributors and exhibitors coming together to stall film stars' participation in the 'Asianet-Jeeva Award' show for which the actors wanted to stay away from shooting in March. Telugu cinema witnessed incidents involving individual actors including actor Balakrishna, son of N. T. Rama Rao who faced charges of involvement in a shootout incident.