A public interest litigation against the Tamil film Mersal was filed in the Madras High Court on Monday, asking for the film’s censor certificate to be revoked, Bar & Bench reported. The latest plea comes a week after the Bharatiya Janata Party objected to some of the scenes in the film.
The petition, filed by advocate A Ashvathaman, said the movie portrayed India in poor light as it had misleading information about its healthcare sector, Digital India and India’s new tax regime, the Goods and Services Tax, The Hindu reported. It added the dialogues in the related scenes will encourage tax evasion.
The advocate objected to a scene in the film where Vijay’s character said Singapore charged a lower GST but provided free healthcare, while India could not despite the high taxes. The advocate asked how the movie was cleared “even though the film contained fake dialogues and scenes, which would lead to misconception about our new taxation system,” according to The Hindu.
The Bharatiya Janata Party had objected to the same two-and-a-half minute sequence in the movie. The BJP claimed the scenes were insulting to the prime minister and the Centre’s policies. The producers of the film reportedly offered to remove the scenes that the BJP considered offensive on Friday. The matter soon snowballed into a controversy that saw the youth, actors and prominent people from the state rally behind the film and its makers.
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