JOIN USPains to see being branded as 'anti-Tamil': Muttiah Muralitharan
Ace Sri Lankan spinner Muttiah Muralitharan, whose upcoming biopic ‘800’ is under target in Tamil Nadu, on Friday alleged that his past statements on post-war situations in his country are being “twisted” and are being “politicized” for various reasons.
In a three-page statement issued in Tamil, Muralitharan, whose forefathers migrated from Tamil Nadu to Sri Lanka to work in colonial plantations, said he never differentiated between “plantation Tamils” and “Eelam Tamils” and that contributed more to the development of the latter than the former.
While plantation Tamils are Indian-origin people who migrated from Tamil Nadu, Eelam Tamils are Sri Lanka’s ethnic minority. The clarification from Muralitharan came amidst demands that Vijay Sethupathi, who will play the role of the spinner in the biopic, should pull out of the movie.
Political parties had on Thursday accused Muralitharan of supporting the Sri Lankan Government in its war against “Eelam Tamils” and asked Vijay Sethupathi not to endorse a man who had “let down his own race” at its “darkest period” in history.
Explaining how plantation Tamils were also affected during the 30-year-old civil war in Sri Lanka, Muralitharan said the movie talks about his journey in cricket in the midst of sufferings.
“My statement in 2019 that 2009 was the happiest year in my life is being twisted to say that I was happy in the year when Tamils were brutally killed. Think from the point of view of an ordinary citizen. After 30 years of war, people lived without any violence for 10 years and that is what I meant when I said 2009 was the happiest year,” he explained.
“There is a wrong opinion on me just because I was part of the Sri Lankan team and made success. If I were born in India, I would have taken efforts to get into the Indian team. Was it my mistake to have been born as a Sri Lankan Tamil?” he asked. He also said it pains when people brand him as “anti-Tamil.”
Though Vijay Sethupathi continued to receive appeals to “pull out” of the project, there was support for him as well. “Will the fringe, of all spectrums, start deciding which actor can act as which character in any movie? Will they also decide on whom movies can be made? Perhaps they should issue an” advisory” on historic and mythological characters that can and cannot be portrayed and by whom,” Congress MP Karti P Chidambaram said.
Popular film actor Radikaa Sarathkumar asked why there was no outrage when Muralitharan was signed as a coach for Sunrisers Hyderabad, an IPL team owned by Sun TV group. “Asking @VijaySethuOffl not to act. Do these people have no work? Why not ask Sunrisers why he is the head coach. The team belongs to a Tamilian with political affiliations. VSP is an actor, and don't curb an actor. VSP and cricket both do not warrant nonsense,” she said.