Vijay Deverakonda's Kingdom Makers Deny Disrespecting Sri Lankan Tamils: Story Is Completely Fictional

Fans celebrated Vijay Deverakonda's comeback to the big screen with the Telugu film Kingdom, which hit theatres on July 31 in multiple languages. In less than a week, the Gowtam Tinnanuri-directed action thriller landed in controversy for allegedly showing the Sri Lankan Tamils in a poor light. There have been protests and calls for a ban on the film in Tamil Nadu, by pro-Tamil leaders who condemned the alleged portrayal of Eelam Tamils as criminals. Videos and pics have gone viral on social media, where supporters of Naam Thamizhar Katchi (NTK) are seen tearing posters of the film outside theatres in many places of Tamil Nadu, including Madurai and Trichy.

They also objected to the main antagonist of the film being named after the Tamil deity Lord Murugan. The group felt that the film not only hurt the sentiments of the Sri Lankan Tamil community but also maligned their dignity and identity.

Sithara Entertainments, the production house of the film, issued a statement on Wednesday (August 6), where they denied disrespecting Sri Lankan Tamils in Kingdom. The makers also clarified that the story is a fictional one, and they claimed to have given a disclaimer regarding it in the movie.

Kingdom makers react to controversy

In a statement, Sithara Entertainments said, "We hereby confirm that we respect the sentiments of the Tamil people, and we promise that there are no such scenes which are involved in the movie that resemble hurting the sentiments of the local state people, and this story is completely a fictional story and an imaginary one, and it has been mentioned in the disclaimer portion of the movie."

The makers also expressed regret if the sentiments of people are hurt. "In such case, if the sentiments of the people are hurt, we regret for the incident. We kindly request you to support the movie," the statement read further.

NTK won't tolerate such acts

As per a report in India Today, Saravanan, State Propaganda Secretary of NTK, said, "The movie demeans LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) fighters and Eezham Tamils. They fought for 30 years and died, but are shown as enslaved people living in the mountain areas. This is an attempt to twist historical facts, and we can’t allow it. They have not had justice until now, and many are still missing. Naam Thamizhar Katchi won’t tolerate such acts of hurting them."

Following the protests, the distributors of the Deverakonda starrer have approached the Madras High Court seeking police protection.