Mersal faced several issues pre and post release. Mersal faced several issues pre and post release.

Actor Vijay’s latest release has been in the eye of storm even before it’s release. While the film finally hit the big screen on Diwali, the controversy around the film has refused to die, with something or the other cropping up. At first, the Bharatiya Janata Party slammed the movie for showing initiatives like GST and Digital India in a bad light and now a lawyer in Madurai has filed a complaint against the actor for hurting religious sentiments.

A scene in ‘Mersal’ has Vijay saying, “We don’t need to build temples, we need to build hospitals”. According to media reports, the lawyer has claimed that the dialogue has hurt Hindu sentiments. This comes in the wake of BJP leader H Raja’s who recently tweeted Vijay’s voter ID card. The card has the actor’s full name – Joseph Vijay. The tweet has added communal shades to the tussle between the party and the makers, where the former had asked for the scenes criticising GST to be cut.

Responding to the allegations, Vijay’s father SA Chandrasekar told News18., “I’m a Christian and my wife is a Hindu. When I filled the school application for Vijay, I wrote his nationality as Indian, religion – Indian and cast – Indian. I did not want to stamp a religious identity on my son’s back when he was four-years-old. I wanted him to be first a human being”.

Helmed by director Atlee, ‘Mersal’ released on October 18. The film also features SJ Suryah, Kajal Aggarwal, Nithya Menen, Samantha Ruth Prabhu and Vadivelu.

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