The festivities around the release of Ajith Kumar’s Viswasam turned tragic in certain places when fans went over the top with celebrations. At Srinivasa Theatre in Tamil Nadu’s Tirukoilur, five fans of Ajith climbed a 30-foot cutout to bathe it in milk, but were injured when the scaffolding collapsed under their weight.
#Watch: Five people injured in Thirukovilur, Tamil Nadu after a cut-out of actor #Ajith collapsed during 'paal abhishekam' (pouring of milk on the cut-out). pic.twitter.com/jazc6eWInV
— ANI (@ANI) January 10, 2019
In an untoward incident, the cutout crashed and fell on fans standing nearby. The fans who were standing on the cutout suffered a nasty fall. A video clip of the incident shows at least five men perched on top of the wooden scaffolding and pouring milk on it. Even as they are doing that, some other men can be seen climbing up on the sides.
The cutout can be seen swaying slightly under the weight of the men before falling forward. Some of them are trying to move to safer spots on the scaffolding, with one even jumping off the side.
It is said that one person died due to the collapse, and the conditions of the other injured fans are unknown.
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This practice of doing paal abisegam on actors’ cutouts have been a custom for all big releases. In recent times, it has been opposed by some because of wastage of milk, and a few stars have also appealed to the fans to give this up.
Yesterday, SA Ponnusamy, founder of Tamilnadu Milk Dealers Employees Welfare Association requested the Tamil Nadu government, the Chief Minister and the Commissioner of Police to take criminal proceedings on actors Rajinikanth and Ajith Kumar for not stopping their fans from wasting milk and putting their lives on risk by climbing on the cutouts. He also requested action to be taken on other actors if they did not stop their fans from doing it.
Directed by Siva, Ajith’s Viswasam has released to rave reviews from fans, and largely positive reviews from critics. The movie has released alongside superstar Rajnikanth’s Petta, directed by Karthik Subbaraj.