Film bodies' plea to avoid targeting Rajini

A fervent appeal has been made to Karnataka film associations to avoid targeting Rajinikanth who was among the film personalities who participated in the April 4 protest fast in Chennai in support of the Hogenekkal drinking water project.

A resolution to this effect was adopted at a joint meeting organized by the Tamil Film Producers Council, Nadigar Sangam, FEFSI, the Distributors Federation, the South Indian Film Chamber and theTheatre Exhibitors on April 8 (Tuesday).

The meeting had been convened to consider the issue of taking action against the film artistes who failed to participate in the fast. The consensus at the meeting was that all the artistes, technicians, music directors, directors and the others who stayed away from the protest be issued a notice seeking their explanation for their absence within 15 days.

Those who were conspicuous by their absence at the protest fast were: directors Maniratnam, Shankar, Bharathiraja, K. Balachander, Thangkar Bachchan and Lingusamy, actors Karthik, Napoleon , Shivakumar, Manivannan, Madhavan, and Arya and actresses Asin, Reema Sen, Simran, Malavika, Meena, Meera Jasmine, Nila, Navya Nair, Revathi, Suhasini, Sridevi and Lakshmi, music directors Ilayaraja and A.R. Rahman.

The Tamil Film Producers Council and other film bodies, who have been seriously considering taking action against the absentees, will now wait till the explanations are received from them.

Producer's Council president Rama Narayanan said a majority of the Kollywood film personalities had taken part in the protest and it was a bigger success than the Neyveli protest. The response was beyond expectations, he added.

He said the organizers believed that the absence of the few industry people was not deliberate and that circumstances would have forced them to stay away. However, serious notice would be taken of those who would not respond to the notice seeking an explanation.

It was decided at the joint meeting that the Karnataka and Tamil Nadu film industries would work in unison in the future and prevent politics from creeping into the entertainment sector.