Tamil Features

A Big Win For CSK In Chennai & A Day Of Protests For Tamil Film Industry

By Dani Charles

The Chennai Super Kings scored a phenomenal win against the Kolkata Knight Riders in Chennai yesterday. They were probably oblivious to the chaos outside the M. A. Chidambaram Stadium when thousands of protesters gathered at Anna Salai to protest against the IPL due to Centre’s failure to constitute the Cauvery Water Management Board. With around 4,000 police personnel deployed in the area, protesters could not go beyond the barricades despite trying to break them.

Director P Bharathiraja, Vairamuthu, Vetrimaaran, Thankar Bachan, actor Ameer joined the protest. They were later packed in police vans and moved out of the site.

Protesters wave Tamil Nadu’s iconic flag outside Triplicane Station
Pic: Dani Charles

The ongoing protests had resulted in traffic coming to standstill, with vehicles forced to take diversions to escape the blocked roads in Anna Salai.

Pic: Dani Charles

Major parties such as Seeman’s Naam Tamilar Katchi joined later, with the protests beginning with people from various fringe groups blocking traffic.

Pic: Dani Charles
Pic: Dani Charles
Pic: Dani Charles

Several members of the Tamil film industry participated in the protest, too. Some were taken away from the venues in police vans later.

With the match being held at 8PM, violence began post 6:30 pm. CSK’s ‘biggest fan’, who paints himself in yellow every year and supports his team, was reportedly assaulted by protesters. Saravanan Hari, the super fan, was outside the stadium before the match when a group of people charged towards him and hit him outside a jewellery shop there. “I don’t know why they wanted to hit me. They just hit me and ran away. They hit me on my head and on my back,” he told The News Minute.

Minutes into the match, shoes were hurled at the players too.

On social media, videos of protesters assaulting regular people sporting the CSK jersey were doing the rounds too.

This morning, actor and upcoming politician Rajinikanth took to Twitter to share a video of a man assaulting a police officer which allegedly happened in the protest yesterday. He tweeted that ‘the worst form of violence in law and order situation is the attack on uniformed personnel on duty’.

As of now, Bharathiraja, Seeman, and a few others from the industry held a press conference in Chennai today, warning that there will be more action taken on April 20, the next CSK match in the city.

According to the latest reports, all IPL matches scheduled to be held in Chennai, will be shifted to another venue.

Dani Charles is a photographer at Silverscreen India, and can be reached on Twitter at danivcharles or by email at dani@silverscreen.in