The Tamil Film Producers’ Council (TFPC) and South Indian PRO-Union has issued a statement saying legal action will be taken against reviewers and critics who criticise a film, its actors and directors to a “huge extent”. The note says they will not be allowed to attend any film related event in the future.
Members of the ad-hoc committee or advisory body of the Producers’ Council and members of the Press Relations Officers union, met at the TPFC office in Chennai yesterday to discuss issues surrounding the exceeding expenses of the producers. They decided that as of July 8, “gifts” will not be given to media persons at press shows, success meets, audio launch, trailer launches and any Tamil film-related event. Press persons will only be served tea and snacks at these events. Strict legal action will be taken against those who criticise a film “in the name of a review to degrade the movie, its actors, and directors”. Such critics will not be allowed for the events hereafter, the note says.
The note also urges all PROs and producers in the Tamil film industry to implement these rules, as decided at the meeting, starting from July 8.
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While many PROs, industry trackers on social media and producers have welcomed the move, other producers and press persons have opposed this.
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Sources say that journalists approached the Tamil Nadu government appointed special officer N Sekhar, who presides over the TFPC affairs, asking if the ad-hoc committee had the power to take such decisions, and said that the statement was an insult to the freedom of the press. The SO promised to look into this and called for another meeting this afternoon. Today’s meeting is open to producers, PROs and anyone from the media to attend.
The TFPC’s ad-hoc committee was formed in May to assist special officer N Sekar, and it was said then that they will not have any decision making powers. The committee has director-producer Bharathiraja, TG Thiagarajan, K Rajan, T Siva, Sivasakthi Pandian, SV Sekar, JSK Satish Kumar and Radhakrishnan. Incidentally, T Siva is one of the producers opposing the new rules.