Colombo: A theatre that was to screen Tamil movie Raavanan was torched in Sri Lanka as the controversy over the film’s Indian actress and director, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Mani Ratnam, not attending the IIFA awards in the country earlier this month grew.
An unidentified group in eastern Sri Lanka has sent handbills to theatre owners, saying that Indian artistes’ “boycott” of the IIFA awards in the first week of June had brought disrepute to Sri Lanka and their movies must not be screened.
Shanthi Cinema in Eastern Batticaloa, which was planning to screen Raavanan, was torched on Thursday a day before the movie was to be relased.
The hall's manager Kandasamy Murugesu said that three people came to his theatre on Monday and told him he should not screen films from Tamil Nadu.
"I informed the Kattankudi police and three days later there was an arson attack," The Sunday Times quoted Murugesu as saying.
Actor Amitabh Bachchan and his son Abhishek and daughter-in-law Aishwarya skipped the awards, citing work commitments.
The family's decision to skip the event created controversy, as Amitabh Bachchan is the ambassador for IIFA.
The celebration was boycotted by the South Indian Film Chamber of Commerce as a mark of protest against the alleged mistreatment of Tamils in the country.
The film industry in the state of Tamil Nadu, which shares close cultural and religious links with the Tamil minority in Sri Lanka, stayed away from the event with superstars Kamal Haasan and Rajnikanth also giving it a miss.
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