CHENNAI: Bowing to pressure from political parties in the state, the Tamil Nadu government on Thursday announced that the screening of the controversial film 'Dam999' would be banned in the state. The terse two-line official statement merely stated, "The Tamil Nadu government has decided to ban with immediate effect the film Dam999, which is creating fear among the people regarding the

Mullaperiyar dam

."

Political parties in Tamil Nadu, including the main opposition

DMK

, have demanded a ban on the film "in the interests of the people" of the state. The English film was scheduled for a worldwide release on November 25.

Jayalalithaa, who was busy the last two days with her appearance in a special court in Bangalore in a corruption case, broke her silence on Thursday and made clear her government's stand on the film, based on a real life incident of a 1975 dam disaster in China that reportedly killed more than 2 lakh people.

The issue took centre-stage on Tuesday with protestors vandalising a preview theatre in Chennai which was all set to screen the film. The film's director Sohan Roy, who hails from Kerala and who was to address the media the same day, hurriedly cancelled the interaction. As protests appeared to intensify, theatre owners in the state announced on Wednesday their decision not to screen the film "respecting people's sentiments".

With Kerala raking up the Mullaperiyar issue in the wake of TN's protests against the film, chief minister J

Jayalalithaa

wrote a stinging letter to Prime Minister

Manmohan Singh

late Wednesday urging him to advise Kerala not to venture into any plans to construct a new dam in the place of the 116-year-old structure that has been a bone of contention between the two states for several years.

While the dam is located in Idukki district in Kerala, it is managed by Tamil Nadu as the water from the Periyar River is used for agriculture purposes for several southern districts here. While Kerala has been demanding that a new dam be constructed to replace the existing one, claiming that the structure has weakened due to the frequent tremors in the region, Tamil Nadu, citing various expert views, has stood its ground that there is no need for a new dam.