Union Minister and actor Suresh Gopi Thursday asserted that the Censor Board never put any pressure on the makers of Empuraan, which is now being shown in theatres after multiple cuts after CPI(M) MP John Brittas mentioned a character from the movie, underlining that “Kerala will keep your poison out”.
Amid the heated debate on the Waqf Bill in Rajya Sabha, Suresh Gopi and John Brittas clashed over movies, including the latest Mohanlal-starrer Empuraan, which ran into political controversy.
Participating in the discussion, Brittas targeted the BJP, vowing to keep them out of Kerala. He then mentioned Empuraan and one of the characters from the movie.
“The other day we spoke about the movie Empuraan. There is a character in the film Munna. You can see that Munna here. You can see a Munna in BJP benches. Malayalis will figure it out. Kerala will figure it out. That is Kerala’s history. Kerala will keep your poison out. One man (read Gopi) has won. Like we closed the account in Nemom, we will close this account also. Malayalis made a mistake and they will rectify it soon. Don’t worry,” said Brittas.
He was referring to the BJP’s victory in the Nemom Assembly seat in 2016 in which former Union minister O Rajagopal had defeated CPI(M) legislator V Sivankutty, giving the BJP the first ever representation in the House.
Brittas then mentioned Munambam, a village in Kerala’s Ernakulam district where a dispute is raging over 400 acres of land which have been declared Waqf property but where Christian families are settled.
“Nobody will lose their house in Munambam. The Left government in Kerala has the responsibility to protect all families. It’s a promise of the government. The government had the wherewithal and courage to construct 5 lakh houses for the homeless. We don’t need anybody’s charity,” Brittas said.
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Hitting back, Gopi later said, “There was an indirect reference to a Malayalam movie. He was talking about Empuraan… Does he dare to have a re-release of TP 51 (based on the life of Revolutionary Marxist Party leader T P Chandrashekharan who was stabbed to death), Left Right Left… Does the Kerala CM have the guts to again permit those films to be screened.”
The two movies Gopi referred to portrayed political violence in Kerala and showed the CPI(M) in an unflattering light.
“… There was no Censor (Board) pressure on the producers of Empuraan. I was the first person to call the producers and ask them to delete my name in the form of a credit towards the beginning of the film. It was the decision of the producers and the lead actor of the film, with the permission of the director, to remove 17 portions from that film. It was their decision,” he said.
“This party has killed some 800-odd people in Kerala… 600 families were cheated because of your politics of murder in Munambam. They had set up a commission which was thrown out by the HC, buried in the Arabian Sea. You will be buried by the people of Kerala, irrespective of Hindus, Muslims and Christians,” he said.
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