Tamil film director Vetrimaaran has sparked a controversy by speaking about Emperor Raja Raja Cholan’s religious identity. According to the director, the famed ruler was not a Hindu Emperor.
Vetrimaaran’s comments have come just days after the release of filmmaker https://www.thequint.com/entertainment/south-cinema/maniratnam-ponniyin-selvan-rajinikanth-kamal-haasan-ar-rahman-aishwarya-rai-bachchan-trailer-launch”>Mani Ratnam’s magnum opus https://www.thequint.com/entertainment/movie-reviews/ponniyin-selvan-review-in-this-enigmatic-world-the-women-hold-as-much-sway-mani-ratnam-aishwarya-rai-bachchan-vikram-karthi-jayam-shobhita-dhulipala-trisha”>Ponniyin Selvan: Part One, which is based on Kalki’s fictional Tamil novel inspired by the Tamil emperor Raja Raja Cholan (since there is no English equivalent of the letter ‘zha,’ Chozhan is mostly written as ‘Cholan’).
Vetrimaaran was speaking at the 60th birthday celebrations of MP and Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi’s (VCK) leader Thol Thirumavalavan on 1 October. He presided over as the Chief guest in the event which included a short film and documentary festival titled ‘Makkal Ezhuchi, Ondru Seru’ (loosely translated as ‘people, rise and come together’).
https://www.thequint.com/south-india/director-vetrimaaran-national-award-winning-filmmaker-sparks-controversy-cinema-politics-raja-raja-cholan-ponniyin-selvan-thiruvalluvar”>