After the reports of protests against AR Murugadoss’ Sarkar, the Madras high court has granted the director interim relief from arrest till 27 November. The director had applied for anticipatory bail as the protests and opposition to the film’s scenes grew.
The director had tweeted a complaint about the police visiting his residence late at night earlier. Murugadoss remarked that the policemen had left since the director was not at home.
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
Several high profile members of the industry like Kamal Haasan, Rajinikanth, and Vishal stepped up in support of the director condemning the political move behind.
The protests against the film, starring Vijay, had broken out after it depicted scenes of people burning mixers and grinders gifted under government schemes.
Sarkar review: A flawed political thriller that’s salvaged by Vijay
Hindustan Times quoted the film’s publicist Riaz K Ahmed saying, “The distributors of different regions got together with the producers to make this decision and the re-censor is being done only because certain scenes have been changed.”
South Indian trade analyst Sreedhar Pillai tweeted a copy of the new CBFC (Central Board of Film Certification) certificate which marked out three key changes that have been cut out of the film.
The makers have now removed the scene of people ‘throwing mixer and grinder into the fire’, as well as muting the name ‘Komalavalli’ in the film. The latter name implies an accusation at the late former chief minister J Jayalalithaa.
Another two muted words are those of ‘Podhupannithurai’ (Public Service) and ’56 varusham’ (56 years).
The film, with its edited sequences, is expected to be screened in theatres from Friday afternoon.
Sarkar, produced by Sun Pictures, released in theatres on 6 November.