Sarkar film row: Madras High Court restrains police from arresting director Murugadoss till November 27

The Madras High Court on Friday granted protection from arrest till November 27 to Murugadoss, director of movie Sarkar. He had filed for anticipatory bail amid growing protests over alleged depiction of former chief minister Jayalalithaa and also agreed to remove “objectionable” scenes and “mute” an apparent reference to her.

The film director’s request for a shield against arrest had come hours after he tweeted late on Thursday night that policemen had turned up at his house yesterday. “Police had come to my house late tonight and banged the door several times. Since I was not there they left the premises. Right now I was told there is no police outside my house,” he tweeted.

Actor Vishal expressed his shock on Twitter and in turn tweeted, “Police in Dir Murugadoss s home????? For Wat?? Hoping and really hoping that nothing unforeseen happens. Censor has cleared the film and the content is watched by public.den why all this hue and cry.”

The publicist of the film Riaz K Ahmed had earlier confirmed that the makers did decide to delete the scenes and are awaiting a nod from the Censor Board before releasing the new version. “The distributors of different regions got together with the producers to make this decision and the re-censor is being done only because certain scenes have been changed.”

Tamil star Rajinikanth also came out in support of the director, slamming AIADMK for objecting to and seeking changes to a film cleared by Censor Board.

“It is against the law to hold protests seeking removal of some scenes from a Censor board certified film and trying to stall the screening and damaging the banners,” he tweeted.

The AIADMK has been protesting since the Diwali release of the movie with senior AIADMK ministers demanding deletion of the objectionable scenes, besides threatening to initiate legal action if the film crew failed to comply.

In the film, Vijay plays an NRI who returns to India to vote, only to realise his vote has been cast illegally. He then digs deep into the matter, stirring up a political turmoil.

Certain scenes show grinder, mixers and fans being burnt, seen as an obvious reference to the late Jayalalithaa’s flagship schemes of providing these items free of cost, in line with an electoral promise in 2011. Also, a woman character’s name is an alleged reference to Jayalalithaa.

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