Many identities are being erased in cinema and we must save these identities, said award winning Tamil filmmaker Vetrimaran on Saturday.
“Our identities are being taken from us very quickly, such as dressing Thiruvalluvar’s image in saffron or depicting Raja Raja Cholan as a Hindu king,” said the director while speaking at the 60th birthday celebrations of MP and Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi’s (VCK) leader Thol. Thirumavalavan.
Vetrimaran’s comments come a day after Mani Ratnam’s adaptation of Kalki’s Ponniyin Selvan, a historical fiction novel on the Chola empire, released worldwide.
Vetrimaaran also recalled a conversation he had with Thirumavalavan in the past.
“He said to me, ‘please stop showing how a single hero alone is changing society in your movies. All filmmakers make the same mistake. Show how change happens through a movement. That will be better’,” The News Minute quoted Vetrimaran as saying.
He went on to say: “Art is inherently political, but Thirumavalavan went a step ahead of that and once told me that ‘our very being is political. Knowingly or unknowingly we are occupying a certain politics’.”
“If we are going to fight for our freedom, we need political clarity. The resistance to the event that was supposed to happen tomorrow [the RSS route march] itself is a great example, in my view,” said Vetrimaran while referring the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s (RSS) route march across 51 locations in Tamil Nadu that was initially slated for October 2.
While speaking to the audience who came to celebrate the birthday of vocal Dalit politician, Vetrimaran pledged his “unconditional support to people who came together” for a political cause.
