Has Vishal Krishna delivered on his promises? We find out
Actor Vishal Krishna has had an interesting tenure as both the General Secretary of the Nadigar Sangam (elected 2015) and the President of the TFPC (elected 2017). After a public fallout with the erstwhile president of the TFPC, Sarath Kumar, he had gone on to contest in the elections, and won the top post amid much fanfare. Vishal also had quite a long manifesto, and promised, among other things, to curb piracy in the state. While he has emerged successful in a few things – and also recently earned the praise of the industry when he stood up for actress Dhanshika – here’s a detailed look at his triumphs and failures so far:
Piracy
Vishal has been putting up a brave fight against piracy for a long time. When he won the TFPC elections, he declared that the battle against piracy has begun. And he started delivering on his promise when Gauri Shankar, the administrator of Tamil Gun website was arrested by the Triplicane police on September 12. Addressing the media soon after, Vishal said, “We have caught the key person involved in movie piracy. He is under investigation now.”
Vishal and his team had helped track the administrator. According to an official press statement from the Council, “With the help of technical experts, we started tracing the piracy website administrators; we found out about Gauri Shankar, collected details about him and submitted a report to the police and filed a case.”
Banning New Tamil Film Releases In Protest Against Entertainment Tax
When theatres protested the double taxation on movie tickets a few months ago, Vishal stated that he would not extend his support to the strike as a total shutdown would send the producers into a loss. But recently, in a protest against local body tax ,Vishal announced that no new Tamil films would be released until the issue was sorted. Four films including Vizhithiru were scheduled to hit the screens last week. Meera Kathiravan, director and producer of Vizhithiru, told Silverscreen, “The TFPC’s announcement came as a big blow to me.” Producers and theatre owners aside, the ancillary industries incurred a loss, too. “Advertisers had paid us for the ads that had to be screened at the time of new releases; if there are no new films releases, we have to return the money. It would affect their business as well,” said CT Valliappan of Kamala Cinemas.
Vishal’s decision to ban new Tamil releases didn’t hugely impact that of the government’s. Entertainment tax was reduced by a mere 2 per cent – from 10 to 8.
Construction Of Nadigar Sangam Building
Vishal’s prime promise in his manifesto was the construction of Nadigar Sangam building. Though there were a few roadblocks in the process, it was a stupendous success for Nasser, Vishal and his team when the court lifted the stay on the construction of the building. After the court order, Vishal said, “The building will be ready by August next year.”
The Star Cricket event, which Vishal had organised to collect funds for the building construction, was also a hit. Later, Vishal invited every actor to carry a brick at the foundation-laying ceremony.
FEFSI Strike
When FEFSI had called a strike in August, shoot of over 55 films were stalled. At that juncture, Vishal told IANS, “We are willing to work with anyone from FEFSI or even those who are not associated with the federation. We will not give in to their demands and we stand by what we said earlier. The Madras High Court had restrained FEFSI from disrupting the shoot of any film.” It appeared to be a bold move. FEFSI, headed by RK Selvamani, took to the labour commission and called off the strike in two days. But in a month’s time, Vishal’s announcement about non-FEFSI workers to join TFPC triggered yet another strike. This time though, it was a total standstill as the shoot of over 50 films was hit. The strike continued for more than a week, and after a six-hour discussion with FEFSI employees, Vishal gave in. He agreed to work just with FEFSI. Angamuthu Shanmugam, general secretary, FEFSI, told Silverscreen, “Our demands have been met and the one-on-one agreement has also been signed, which mentions that the TFPC will work only with FEFSI employees.” This may not have been a well-struck bargain for TFPC, who were determined to work with non-FEFSI workers as well.
Vishal Slams T Rajendar For Harassing Dhanshika
Much before other celebrities extended their support to Dhanshika when T Rajendar went on a tirade against her for not mentioning him in her speech, TFPC president Vishal, in a note, condemned T Rajendar. In an official statement, Vishal said, “It’s very common for a person on stage to miss mentioning names while addressing a gathering. Dhanshika apologised after he pointed that out. But, Mr TR didn’t pardon Dhanshika who is as old as his daughter.” He also criticised actors Vidharth and Krishna (who were also on stage) for their failure to do anything about the incident. “It doesn’t matter if they didn’t do anything. At least, they should’ve refrained from clapping and laughing as the scene played out,” Vishal said.
Regulating Actors’ Salaries
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Something that was talked about widely during the FEFSI strike was the regulation of actors’ salary. While many criticised the TFPC for not making an effort to bring that under control, Vishal said that he would look into the issue by having a transparent system in place with respect to box office collections.
Extending Support To Other Issues And Causes
Vishal had promised to curb illegal airing of new films on television, and had taken a stand against online ticket booking charges. “TFPC will create a website and book tickets for Rs 10, why do we have to spend Rs 30 on online booking charges,” Vishal said in a press meet. More recently, he’d asked theatres to permit people to come with their own water bottles, and to cut down on parking charges.
Vishal had also been vocal during the Jallikattu, hydrocarbon project, and farmers protests – and also extended his support to each. When farmers were protesting at Jantar Mantar in Delhi, Vishal, representing the Nadigar Sangam, joined them for a day.
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