Politicians, filmmaker urge Vijay Sethupathi not to play Muttiah Muralitharan in biopic

800, the biopic of Muttiah Muralitharan, was at the center of a raging row on Thursday with political leaders and a celebrated film director appealing to popular Tamil actor Vijay Sethupathi to “pull out” of the movie pointing to the ace Sri Lankan spinner’s stand vis-à-vis Sri Lankan Tamils.

Muralitharan, whose forefathers hailed from Tamil Nadu, had supported the Sri Lankan Government in its war against the now defunct Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), political leaders pointed out and asked Vijay Sethupathi not to endorse a man who had “let down his own race” at its “darkest period” in history.

PMK founder S Ramadoss, Seeman, the chief of Naam Tamizhar Katchi (NTK) which espouses the cause of Tamil nationalism, and celebrated filmmaker Bharathiraja issued separate statements on Thursday asking Vijay Sethupathi to call off the project “by any means.”

Their statements came after the actor was trolled on Twitter using a hashtag #ShameonVijaySethupathi which trended for the whole of Wednesday. The biopic, to be bankrolled by Dar Motion Pictures and directed by M S Sripathy, will capture the captivating journey of the ace spinner who took a record 800 wickets in his test career.

The movie primarily made in Tamil, the spinner’s mother tongue, will also be released in Hindi, Bengali, and Sinhalese. The producers came out with a statement clarifying that the film does not make any political statement favouring any community and that it is intended only to be an inspiration for the younger generation.

Sri Lankan Tamils and the 30-year-old civil war in the island nation are emotive issues in Tamil Nadu with almost all political parties blaming the powerful Rajapaksas for “killing innocent Tamils.”

“Muttiah Muralitharan was fiddling when Tamil children were dying, and he had fully endorsed the Sinhalese racist attitude. What is the use of achieving much in sports when you had laughed at the plight of your own race? Do you want your face to be associated forever with a man who had backstabbed his own race and be looked at with hatred by people?” Bharathiraja asked.

Ramadoss termed Muralitharan as an “enemy of Tamil race” and said the spinner’s “full-time job” was to effuse praise on Rajapaksas “who killed lakhs of Tamils” in the name of war.

“I am not going to appeal to Vijay Sethupathi not to act in the biopic. If he announces he is going to act in the movie, he will find place in good chapter of history. If he acts in this movie against the wishes of Tamil people, he will find place among those who committed treachery,” Ramadoss said.

Muralitharan, who is married to Mathimalar from Chennai, and Sethupathi shared their thoughts on the upcoming movie in a recent show on Star Sports’ pre-show Cricket Live.