Income Tax Sleuths Raid Actor Vishal’s House

Chennai: Income Tax department officials visited Tamil Nadu Film Producers’ Council president Vishal's film production company in Chennai, to ostensibly verify the "non-deposit of TDS" (Tax Deducted at Source) in the government's account. Interestingly, the Tax officials visit comes on the heels of Vishal's criticism of BJP leader H. Raja, who had claimed to have watched Mersal on the internet--allegedly a pirated version of the film.

Vishal, who has been spear-heading an anti-piracy campaign, commented, "watching a pirated film is not good for the film business and we have been fighting for curbing online downloading of films amounting to piracy.”He demanded an apology from Raja on the issue. However, Raja later denied the comments he had made during a television debate and claimed he had seen some clips of the movie that were shared on WhatsApp.The South Indian Film Chamber of Commerce meanwhile, wrote to PMO hoping that it would "treat the complaint on merit and in a steadfast manner."

The BJP seems to have tied itself up in knots over the controversy surrounding actor Vijay's Diwali release,Mersal in Tamil Nadu. If anything, with their words and actions, the storm kicked up by the BJP over criticism of references to GST in the film, only appears to be thickening. Sevral BJP leaders, notably Raja, one of the national secretaries of the party, state president of the party, Soundarajan and Union minister Pon Radhakrishnan, among others had asked for the deletion of “incorrect” references in the film. However, the BJP's criticism of the film only seems to have worked well for the Vijay-starrer, which has already grossed over Rs 100 crores.

Support to the film and its team came from many quarters including, Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi, former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, DMK working president MK Stalin, thespian Kamal Haasan and several other celebrities from the movie industry.