Tamil Features

September Rewind: Top 7 Social Media Moments

By Janani K

Last month was a rollercoaster ride for several big-budget movies. Plus the usual mind-numbing controversies.

1. Director Suseenthiran’s Paayum Puli, starring Vishal and Kajal Aggarwal, ran into delays when distributors and theatre owners in Trichy, Thanjavur, North Arcot, and South Arcot refused to screen the film. Until there was compensation losses over Lingaa. As a solution, the Producers Council came up with a non-solution: guillotine the release of all films. Until everything gets resolved. Actor Vishal, who had called the film the most exciting of his career, wasn’t pleased. Fortunately, he was able to sort things out just in time.

What really got his goat, though, was the timing:

2. It doesn’t sound right, AR Rahman and controversy. But that’s just what happened when the Raza Academy issued a fatwa against the music legend for his work in the Iranian biopic Muhammed: The Messenger Of God. Several celebrities came forward to support him, even as many remained silent.

Most fitting of all was Rahman’s reply to fatwa. He spoke movingly about what he thinks Allah expects from him and his art. His response on his FB page had almost 50,000 likes at the time of writing. One among that number was  Chinmayi, his friend and colleague.

3. It was the 1980s all over again. Rajinikanth vs Kamal Haasan. Only this time, it was on Twitter and Facebook. The trailer of Kamal Haasan’s Thoongaavanam was released at 4:21 pm, a reference to the theme of insomnia in the film (421 is the CDC code for insomnia). If it’s Kamal Haasan or Rajinikanth, it definitely have to make waves right?

4. A few hours later, as Kabali‘s low-resolution poster (on Aanadha Vikatan‘s cover) started doing the rounds, director Pa. Ranjith decided to release the poster a day in advance. And it was Rajinikanth’s turn to trend nationwide.

A group of ardent Rajinikanth fans amped up their craziness levels.

And this fan decided, why pick one when you can have two? He designed a thoughtful and intriguing poster, combining both movies.

5. Sivakarthikeyan’s Rajini Murugan was supposed to release on September 17, but was postponed. However, what did make headlines was Sivakarthikeyan getting beaten up some people claiming to be Kamal Haasan’s fans. Apparently, two months ago, he had said not-nice things about Shruti Haasan.

After a while, Sivakarthikeyan said he was all right, despite the shocking incident.

Sivakarthikeyan’s fans trended #WeSupportSivakkarthikeyan and sympathetic words poured in.

6. Will it release? Won’t it release? Director Chimbu Deven’s Puli is gearing up for an October 1 release and the second trailer was recently released. Archana Kalapathi, who is basking in the success of Thani Oruvan, was visibly excited. Even though it’s not her film.

7. Vijay and Ajith. Announcements and promotional material. The back and flurry took us right back to the 1990s. The first look and title (Vedhalam) of Ajith’s 56th film with director Siruthai Siva was released on September 24. As a fan described it, his twitter feed was flooded with Vedhalam’s posters.

Actor Shanthanu Bhagyaraj, who is an Ajith fan, seemed happy.

And as soon as the announcement was made, the Twitter battle lines had been drawn. Vijay and Ajith fans got busy trolling each other. As Yoda would say – begun, the Fan Wars, have.

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Janani K is a Alum at Silverscreen India, and can be reached by email at jananik@silverscreen.in