Kannada Rakshana Vedike against Shivaji

By: Settu Shankar
Monday, April 09, 2007
A negative campaign against the super star Rajini's film Shivaji has been started by some third- rate politicians in and around the state of Tamil Nadu. Some of the politicians who want to popularize their name after Shivaji have been trying to damage the business of the film. The first stone has been hurled by Vijaya T.Rajendar, an ally of of the ruling DMK combine. He has announced his intention of protest against Shivaji, if the ticket rates are hiked by the Govt. for this particular movie against the prevailing rates fixed by the authorities. He has blasted Rajini over this issue, just to satisfy his 'personal grudge' against the actor through his ugly 'paid up' interviews to the media.

At present, he is nowhere in politics and he runs a 'letter pad' party to remind of his survival to others. He was waiting for a chance to assert his presence, and Shivaji has given him a good opportunity in doing so.

Some of the Pattali Makkal Katchi activists have also criticized and vowed to prevent the release of Shivaji in their strong hold. They criticized the lyricists for the use of some English words in the lyrics of the song 'Oru koodai sunlight...'!

Some activists of Tanjure farmers union have declared their protests against Shivaji for using the word Cauvery in the song, 'Balleleika...' According to them, Rajini doesn't have any right to use the name of the river Cauvery, since he has maintained complete silence over the Cauvery issue between the two states.

Under such circumstances, The Kannada Rakshana Vedike has announced its strong protest against the screening of Tamil films, including Shivaji, in the theaters of Bengalooru and other parts of the state. Narayana Gowda, President of this political outfit announced this in Bengalooru at a Press meet on Friday.

He told: 'the final verdict of Cauvery Tribunal will turn the state into a desert. Karnataka will never give an extra drop of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu. We, the Kannadigas, will protest against the screening of all the Tamil films including the Rajini starrer Shivaji in our state, until the withdrawal of Cauvery Tribunal's final verdict. I have come to know that some of the Kannada producers are trying to screen Shivaji in Bengalooru and Mysore. If they are doing so, let them decide their own fate...'

This has created shock waves in the AVM circle. The buzz in the air is, some of the Kannada distributors have offered nearly Rs.15 crores for the Karnataka rights of the film. But AVM has fixed the price at Rs.18 crores for the entire Karnataka rights. Earlier Chandramuki collected a record share of Rs.11 crores for its Karnataka Distributors and crossed 200 days of successful running in many theaters of the state, just like it did in Tamil Nadu.

One can expect mushrooming of similar protests by people and organizations against this giant of a movie, in trying to encash on cheap publicity. However, they will have to pay the price, as only time will show their true colour, and what price they had fixed to give up their so called self respect!